Q: Dear Ask Us Guy
The Sunday Free Press has a new format for their comics-puzzle section. It is beautiful. I don’t understand why they publish the same Sudoku problem twice. Give the puzzle-lovers two puzzles, or save ink by printing it only once.
A: The tabloid-style Sunday comics sections, which were launched earlier in fall, offer readers traditional humor as well as a variety of puzzles. These range from crosswords to code breaking challenges to word search to crosswords. Two of the classic number-grid Sudoku puzzles are now available in the new section, which is an increase of one over the Sunday Free Press.
But, the reader is correct: The newspaper published the exact same Sudoku on both pages of its comics section.
Ask Us Guy, who is typically humbled by the arduous Sudoku in the TV guide of the Saturday Free Press and focuses on the New York Times Crossword in the Sunday Free Press, hadn’t noticed the repetitive Sudoku issue.
Neither had the folks at The Free Press who assemble the “Sunday Comics and Puzzles Book,” according to Free Press Publisher Steve Jameson.
“We should thank the reader for pointing this out,” Jameson said when the issue was forwarded to him. “The unfortunate answer is that none of us here are Sudoku players so we never even took a look at the two puzzles to check to see if they were different or the same. We more look at the pages and say, ‘Yep, everything is on the page that needs to be there’ and call it a day. So, going forward, we’ll correct this. We’ll be placing a second Sudoku puzzle that is actually different from the other one … we think. We’re journalists, not math whizzes so we try to avoid anything with too many numbers in it.”
Now, Suck Up Gu — umm — Ask Us Guy thinks it’s important to point out that his ultimate boss — once again showing his consummate professionalism and unparalleled dedication to the happiness of Free Press customers — was true to his word. Jameson was promptly notified of the problem and immediately rectified it so readers now get two different Sudokus in Sunday Free Press.
Q: Ask Ya
The utility companies will be bringing back drop-off boxes at grocery stores. They not only helped us pay our bills on time, but they also brought in a lot of customers to the stores. (As long as you’re there … .)
A: Ask Ya Guy almost believes that utilities will not bring back supermarket drop boxes. While the payment option was convenient for people who like to pay their bills with old-fashioned bank checks, most electricity and natural gas companies — and municipalities, such as the city of Mankato, that bill for water/wastewater and garbage — are doing everything they can to get people to switch from checks to auto-pay.
These automatic deductions ensure that the bills are paid on time each month, reduce the amount of time spent opening envelopes and recording payments, as well as avoiding the need to run to different supermarkets to empty drop boxes.
Mankato used to pay utility customers to make the switch to auto-pay for several years. They were able to get a small monthly discount if they did. The discount was discontinued this year both as a money-saver and because city officials are convinced people are going to go with the convenience of auto-pay even if there’s no financial incentive.
You can reach us at The Free Press (418 S. Second St.), Mankato, MN 56001 to ask questions. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to [email protected]; put Ask Us in the subject line.