Tammy McLeod solved an advanced puzzle in 7 minutes, 41 seconds yesterday to defeat former world and U.S. champion Thomas Snyder and win the third Philadelphia Inquirer Sudoku National Championship.

The 32-year-old from Los Angeles won $10,000 and a spot on the U.S. team in the fifth annual World Sudoku Championship next spring in Philadelphia.

Natan Tsyrulnik, 31, of Shelton, Conn., won the beginner division and $1,000. Davis Borucki, 15, of Columbia, S.C., claimed the intermediate division and $3,000.

The tournament drew 646 contestants ages 8 to 93.

GARTH BROOKS TICKETS ARE HOT SELLERS

Garth Brooks mused that the public may have moved on, when he announced he was coming out of retirement. He was wrong.

Tickets for Brooks' first 20 shows at the Wynn Las Vegas resort sold out in less than five hours. The resort said yesterday it reached maximum capacity for callers at 141,934, with many getting busy signals. Officials say the ticket Web site had more than 5.4 million page views, with 40,000 waiting at one point to buy tickets online.

Brooks announced a five-year deal with casino owner Steve Wynn last week that includes 15 weeks of shows a year in the Encore theater, which seats about 1,500. Tickets are $125 plus fees.

The Brooks shows begin Dec. 11.

COSBY TO ACCEPT AWARD HE TWICE REJECTED

Bill Cosby still thinks America is funny — like the name-calling over health care and the way we drink so much water from plastic bottles that could be toxic.

The 72-year-old will receive the nation's foremost humor prize tomorrow at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Sinbad and other top entertainers will line up to honor him with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

It's a prize Cosby has turned down twice before because he said he was disgusted with the profanity and N-words thrown around by performers honoring Richard Pryor, who was the first recipient in 1998.

"I told them flat out no because I will not be used, nor will Mark Twain be used, in that way," he said last week from his home in New York.

The profanity bugs Cosby. He always kept it clean with the family laughs on his sitcoms, including "The Cosby Show," from 1984 to 1992.

It took a chat with Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser this year at Sen. Edward Kennedy's birthday celebration for Cosby to accept the award this time.

"What I wanted was to associate my work with why I do what I do," he said.

Cosby is scheduled to perform Jan. 15 in Honolulu at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.