My teachers often found it useful to keep me occupied with extra projects. I had a teacher in 2nd and 4th grade who brought things from Mexico and got me started studying Latin America. I began ordering booklets from Pemex, the OAS, and the Government Printing Office. In 4th grade, she gave me a corner of the classroom to keep information I gathered on Sputnik and which I shared with other students. At the end of sixth grade, I did a poster presentation at the Colorado Teachers Association meeting on the last days of the Belgian Congo. I enjoy intellectual challenges and was drawn to “brain teasers” in grade school. It was probably while I was in junior high that I noticed a peculiarity in the “magic square” that led me to extend its diagonal axes as shown in the attached grid. When I first noticed the Sudoku craze a few years ago, I was disappointed that it was based on a somewhat different set of assumptions, so I continue to call this puzzle a “magic square.”