A recent Sunday afternoon found me comfortably settled in a lounge chair, pen
in hand and the Observer-Dispatch crossword puzzle ready to go.
I
started with the “across” clues. I thought I knew the answer to the first, but
it didn’t fit in the allocated boxes, so I moved on to the next clue. And the
next. And then the next, with the same frustrating result.
Rarely – if
ever – have I been able to complete an entire puzzle in one run-through. But
usually, I can muddle my way through with correct answers here and
there.
So I thought I’d try a different approach, and moved to the
“down” clues. These were even worse. And I started to wonder if maybe I needed
to call for an appointment for one of those mental acuity tests.
But
then the math part of my brain kicked in. And I realize the clues didn’t match
the boxes. There was no 8-across; there were no clues for 24 and 26-down. And
then the logic part of the brain engaged: Aha! The grid was not the match for
the clues.
I called the office – even publishers get to make complaint
calls to the newsroom – and learned the New York Times syndicate had sent out
the wrong puzzle. They claimed they’d sent a correction, but we – and dozens of
other newspapers – never received it.
What struck me as funny, though,
was how few calls we received that Sunday about our mangled puzzle. Many people
told us – the next day – that they breathed a sigh of relief when they learned
that the grid was the wrong one for the clues.
Apparently, folks who do
crossword puzzles tend to be older; many do puzzles because they think it will
keep them mentally fit, and none wanted to admit that they might be losing
it.
We often get calls from people with a complaint, who begin by
telling us they “only” read the paper for ... you name it, the puzzle, the
obits, the comics, the sports, whatever. I think we’re supposed to be chastened
by such comments; there’s usually a sub-text accusation along the lines of
“there’s nothing else in there that interests me.”
We respect that
different readers pick up the newspaper for different reasons.
Ideally,
we hope every reader peruses every square inch of the paper, every story, every
cutline, every ad. But there aren’t enough hours in the day for anyone to do
that with any paper.
And that’s OK.
Newspapers are, by their
very design, a great big variety store of news and information. Not in the
market for a pet? Then skip that part of the Classifieds. Hate baseball? Then
you probably don’t give a whit for coverage of the All-Star game.
Find a
particular opinion columnist annoying? Then skip that column.
But as you
flip through, and over, the many different pages of the newspaper, no doubt
you’ll find something else of interest.
Sure, maybe you turned first to
the obit page, but en route, you might have spotted something on the Local news
cover that interested you. Or noticed an interesting feature on the Your Life
page. Or found an ad for something you never realized you needed, or wanted, but
now you’re thinking it just might make life perfect.
Read what interests
you. If there’s something you’d like covered that we seem to be missing, let us
know. And if the puzzle’s wrong, call us. At the very least, we can commiserate
about arcane clues.
Donna Donovan is publisher of the
Observer-Dispatch. Contact her at ddonovan@uticaod.com.
