Sound Off for Dec. 7, 2008
Reader: We want to complain about the puzzle you've done away with. One of them was my favorite. You only have one Wuzzle. The Cryptoquip is so small I can't write on it. I have to copy it on to another paper.
We can listen to all the news we want on television. We really take The Californianbecause we enjoy those puzzles in the morning while we're sitting here.
We've been subscribers for 62 years. I'm so disappointed.
Please put it back in the Classified section and a little bit bigger. It's ridiculous it's so small.
-- Melvin Cochran
Reader:My comments are in regard to whoever made the idiotic decision to remove the puzzles from the Classified section. It was an enjoyable thing. It was something you could do to exercise your brain power rather than to read some of the inane articles that you happen to put in this rag you call a newspaper.
-- Mr. Ward
Reader: I'm very disappointed we don't have two crossword puzzles. I also can't see the Cryptoquip hardly at all. Don't like that format, and I'm still not satisfied with not having a TV Guide.
I'd much rather have black and white pictures of animals and my TV Guide back and my extra crossword puzzle.
You're cutting costs, I know, but you are cutting the wrong things and adding the wrong things in my humble opinion.
-- Patty Seymour
Reader:I am disappointed and sorry to see Word Sleuth discontinued in the paper.
In an age where it is good to exercise your mind in different ways, I would hope you would find room for this puzzle.
Both my husband and I are sorry you discontinued the "Family Circus."
-- Enid Phillips
Reader:Geez guys!! Give us seniors a break, will ya? You are making it awfully tough on your largest reading group. It's no longer "where's my glasses" but "where's my magnifying glass?"
I love the puzzles, but I have to be able to see them to do 'em!
Honestly, if you look in Webster's under "minuscule," you'll surely find "see The Bakersfield Californian's "Cryptoquip" puzzle!
-- Teddy Voorhees
Reader: I'm so disappointed not to find the puzzles that usually appear in the Classified section. In these times of tight budgets I've been thinking of cutting back on my periodical subscriptions but I need the daily brain exercise from those two crossword puzzles and the cryptoquip while I'm having my morning coffee. I hope they haven't been permanently eliminated. That's one of the best features of your paper that has kept it off the chopping block at my house so far.
-- Jo Walker
Reader:I've been a subscriber to The Californiansince 2001 when we moved to Bakersfield. I've liked the newspaper up until the past few months when it began to change. I'm a senior citizen (set in my ways?) and have tried to like what has been done to change the paper.
I've done pretty well up until now. You've changed the crossword puzzle, left out the word search and changed the Cryptoquip. You've shrunk the type so much that we older readers can hardly make it out. The way it is now, the Cryptoquip is almost too small to read. Can you please enlarge it for us oldsters who are the ones who do the puzzles most of the time? I doubt if the working people have the time for them. And, while you're at it, can you give us the crossword that was in the Classified section before? This one that was always on the comics page was never any good!
I like the news you report, but would really like to have the puzzles changed. Thank you.
-- Carol Black
Reader:I ask simply that you bring back all of the puzzles in their original format. I think the Sound Offs in Sunday's paper expressed it for all of us.
I don't think you answered why you took them away in the first place. Please inform me of your reasoning.
-- Betty Hylton
Jenner: Two weeks ago we discontinued the "Classified Corner" feature that appeared Monday through Saturday in the Classified section. This feature consumed roughly a half page of space and contained a crossword puzzle, a word-finder puzzle, the Cryptoquip puzzle, a Wuzzle puzzle and two Hocus Pocus features in which readers try to find differences between two similar drawings.
The feature was discontinued simply because of the expense of the newsprint, which is now at an all-time high price. The annual amount we spend on newsprint for Classified Corner is roughly equivalent to the salaries of two reporters.
We publish a crossword puzzle each day in the Eye Street section. It is slightly more challenging than the puzzle we ran in Classified Corner, but it is a quality puzzle.
We managed to find a home for the Cryptoquip and now run it in Eye Street each weekday, and are running one of the Hocus Focus puzzles most days.
The advertising department is seeking a sponsor for the second crossword puzzle, but if we can't sell a sponsorship, I'll have to ask readers to try to learn to love the Eye Street puzzle.
We deeply appreciate the loyalty of all of you and hope you continue to find value in The Californian.
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Reader:Since when is there a tax on your paper when you go to a convenience store to get the paper? Today, I went to one and the price on the paper said 75 cents. The clerk then charged me 80 cents. Is this right?
I will be waiting for an answer.
Thanks.
-- Harold G. Reed
Jenner: Facing a significant revenue crisis, the state of California imposed sales taxes on single copy newspaper sales — in 1991.
The tax is collected at convenience and grocery stories and is paid by those merchants.
When you buy the paper from one of our news racks, we pay the tax.
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Reader:I want to thank The Californianfor the article regarding the Bakersfield Rescue Mission in your Nov. 27 edition. Where it did mention SC Anderson Inc., who offered their services and spearheaded this project, and Anderson Group International, who contacted the subcontractors who are working on this project as well as providing supervision and project over site, you failed to mention the subcontracting companies who without their generosity, this project would not be possible.
Those companies are as follows:
HPS Mechanical Inc. -- Plumbing
Frank Cantelmi Engineering -- Specifications and Plans
Control Fire -- Fire sprinklers
Stockdale Tile -- Supplied the ceramic tile
Hudson Tile Inc. -- Labor to install the ceramic tile
OK Sheet Metal Inc. -- Ventilation
There are many other subcontractors/ vendors who are providing services for this worthwhile project, not to mention the support staff at the Rescue Mission headed by Randy Godkin.
It's nice to have the Bakersfield contracting community come together in a time of need for such a worthwhile project.
-- Gregg Byrd
Anderson Group International
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Reader: Did The Californian intentionally print the article as found in the Nov. 29 Eye Street section ("Try gifts that people can actually use" by Steve Barnes, Albany Times Union)? Sure, it's a free country and you are free to print anything you want regarding toilet paper, but maybe you should have asked yourself first: Would we reprint that article if it referred to an image of President-elect Obama, or maybe a heading of The Bakersfield Californian, or perhaps a likeness of the managing editor? Not so funny now is it?
Bottom line, no pun intended, I'm hoping you will print an apology. Either that, or your "newspaper" (IMHO) has become about as odiferous as the target matter of the suggested "useful gift."
-- Lew Hurlbutt
Jenner: The story you refer to listed eight different gift ideas and devoted a paragraph to each. The item that offended you was a toilet paper roll with a likeness of President Bush and some of his quotes.
I agree the item isn't funny. But I'm also sure that in a few more years there will be a similar product featuring President-elect Obama.
I doubt there'll be much of a market for TP featuring Californianeditors, but if there ever is, I'll give you a roll for free.
Sorry you were offended.
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Reader: I understand that the letters you print are reader's opinions. But I don't understand why you do not check simple things like math. Giving everyone (187 million, per recent letter writer's count, which is not an accurate count) $250,000 each would be $47 trillion, not the quoted $47 million. A significant error.
-- Ray Reilly
Editorial Page Editor Dianne Hardisty responds: Your e-mail was just one of several we received noting the math error in a recent letter to the editor. Opinion section editors did indeed notice the error in the letter and removed the letter from the page. Regrettably, the page wasn't updated in the production process and the erroneous letter was printed.
I'm sorry the bad math got into print.
Many years ago, I took a college class designed for liberal arts majors. Incredibly it was called "Physics without math." In similar fashion, I think we should have a "no math" rule for letters to the editor. Inevitably authors of "math heavy" letters to the editor get the math wrong and trigger protest letters. In fact, a critic of this most recent "math challenged" letter to the editor had to send a correction to his protest. He, too, got the math wrong.
