Sudoku, the numbers-logic game from Asia that has taken the English-speaking world by storm, brings dozens of calls each week from fans who want the puzzle seven days a week in The Tribune.
A Google search for the word sudoku shows there are more than 11.6 million pages in English that deal with the devilishly clever squares.
“Please, please, please” you asked.
“You get what you desire,” is the answer from Michael Anastasi, The Tribune’s managing editor for sports and features.
You may put the paper down for a minute while you jump for joy and scream like a banshee.
Starting Monday, a sudoku puzzle will appear in The Tribune every day. Monday through Thursday and on Saturday, the sudoku will be found in the Utah Living and Faith sections, but not with the comics and the crossword. There’s no room on those pages, so we will list the location of the sudoku in the A-1 index. On Friday, the sudoku will appear in the Close-Up section that goes out to various neighborhoods. On Sunday, the sudoku puzzle will be in the Travel section.
And, so new puzzlers as well as veterans at putting the right number in the right square can find fun and learn the knack each week, the puzzles will be easier at the beginning of the week and tougher as the days go by.
Salt Lake Tribune readers are not the only newspaper subscribers who are nuts about this numbers puzzle. Dailies across the country have made room in their pages for these addictive games.
People with computers can find millions of pages on the Internet that will offer tips on how to puzzle out a sudoku.
Where’s Helen?
Before you start calling me and asking, Where’s “Helen – Sweetheart of the Internet,” here’s the skinny.
The syndicate that carried Helen has canceled its contract with Helen’s cartoonist, so we cannot purchase the comic strip any more.
The last time Helen will appear on Tribune pages is Sunday, Christmas Day.
Tipping the carrier: Several dozen people have called in the last week asking how they can get a tip to their newspaper carrier.
Here’s the easiest way. The Newspaper Agency Corporation (NAC), which sells the ads, prints and delivers both The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret Morning News puts a 2-column ad in the newspaper on Fridays and Sundays that you can cut out and send in with your
tip.
If you don’t want to do that, put your check or money order, made out to NAC in an envelope along with a sheet of paper listing your name, address and whether you subscribe to The Tribune or the News and mail it to: NAC Circulation Dept., P.O. Box 704005, West Valley City, UT 84170-4005.
Why combine them? Many readers have asked what this subscriber so aptly expresses:
“I enjoy reading The Tribune but there is one thing that drives me crazy. The sports section is always a separate section in every newspaper but in The Tribune you never know. Here it is usually coupled with business. Why is the business section sometimes added at the end of the sports section? Totally ridiculous. I can’t believe that in a country this size there is not enough ‘business’ to entitle Business to receive its own section.”
A solution is on the way, dear readers. The combining of Sports and Business into one section is the result of trying to fit the paper on the old presses shared by The Tribune and the News. There are a limited number of “color” spots that can be run on these old machines, so when demand is heavy for color ads, then Business loses its section front and gets shoved inside Sports. I could bore you with a long description of how the sections are determined at NAC, but it’s almost Christmas, so I will spare you.
The problem should be solved in six months or so when the new high-speed, state-of-the-art Japanese presses are installed in West Valley City.
Until then, I feel your pain.
