Perplexed puzzle fans plead for space
Mention September of 2005 and most Southeast Texans will conjure up memories of Hurricane Rita. But in that week between the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and our own experiences with Rita, another small change came to Beaumont.
In the midst of publishing stories about volunteers helping refugees housed at Ford Park, The Enterprise launched the publication of a then little-known number puzzle called Sudoku.
For the 12 people who have no idea what I am talking about, the puzzle involves a grid with nine spaces in each direction. The grid is divided into nine smaller grids that are three spaces across and down.
Some of the numbers are provided. The object of the puzzle is to fill in the blank squares with the remaining numbers — one through nine — so that each number appears only once in each horizontal line, each vertical line, and each smaller grid.
Leading up to the launch of the puzzle, I tried to familiarize myself with it and learned one vital secret to success — pencil. If you work the Sudoku puzzle, you’re going to erase — a lot.
That first week, and the weeks after Rita, I answered a great many Sudoku puzzle questions. One of the most pressing was: “How do I get the answers?”
We had selected a Sudoku puzzle provider that did not publish answers, but instead, required that readers go to their Web site. That was simply part of the deal.
But we did listen to those complaints and take them to heart.
So, as we made plans for our recent conversion to a new writing and page building computer program at The Enterprise, we discovered the old Sudoku puzzle was not compatible with the way we now are creating pages. It gave us the opportunity to provide our readers with a better product . . . or so we thought.
We found an option that would provide our readers with the answers. We thought we were doing a good thing. At least a couple dozen readers have let us know we failed —miserably. Who knew 81 little squares could cause such uproar?
The new puzzle, in making room to include the answer grid, has smaller squares. We reasoned that would be acceptable because the squares are about the same size as the squares in our crossword puzzle. Our readers told us how wrong we were.
In determining the correct answer puzzle workers make note of options in the open square, eliminating the options that don’t work as they fill in the blanks. Some readers have described our new Sudoku puzzle as “absolutely useless.”
We’ve pondered various options, but as yet have no viable solution to the problem we created.
Be patient and don’t give up on us. We hear you and we’re trying to come up with a resolution.
* * *
One of my jobs as Reader Representative is to handle corrections. Sometimes those errors are obvious and sometimes they are more subtle. Sometimes we even dispute the fact that someone thinks we made an error.
Such was the case when a BISD spokeswoman called to complain about a perceived error in a Sunday, Oct. 18, story saying the cost of the district’s athletic complex rose by $14 million.
The argument was that, since the district figured in inflation and other fees as part of the $388.6 million bond package passed in 2007, that the rise in the cost from $29 million to $44 million was always expected and part of the original issue voters approved.
A check of The Enterprise archives showed, several times, those voters were told, on our pages, that the cost of the complex would be $29 million. Yes, the bond issue included $72 million for inflation and $4.6 million for a regional construction premium, but a 48 percent change for one project seems out of the realm of planned costs.
We chose to stand by our story, because BISD never questioned that original figure before the election.
Meanwhile Dr. Carrol Thomas, BISD’s superintendent is complaining that members of the media are misrepresenting the facts.
In the midst of publishing stories about volunteers helping refugees housed at Ford Park, The Enterprise launched the publication of a then little-known number puzzle called Sudoku.
For the 12 people who have no idea what I am talking about, the puzzle involves a grid with nine spaces in each direction. The grid is divided into nine smaller grids that are three spaces across and down.
Some of the numbers are provided. The object of the puzzle is to fill in the blank squares with the remaining numbers — one through nine — so that each number appears only once in each horizontal line, each vertical line, and each smaller grid.
Leading up to the launch of the puzzle, I tried to familiarize myself with it and learned one vital secret to success — pencil. If you work the Sudoku puzzle, you’re going to erase — a lot.
That first week, and the weeks after Rita, I answered a great many Sudoku puzzle questions. One of the most pressing was: “How do I get the answers?”
We had selected a Sudoku puzzle provider that did not publish answers, but instead, required that readers go to their Web site. That was simply part of the deal.
But we did listen to those complaints and take them to heart.
So, as we made plans for our recent conversion to a new writing and page building computer program at The Enterprise, we discovered the old Sudoku puzzle was not compatible with the way we now are creating pages. It gave us the opportunity to provide our readers with a better product . . . or so we thought.
We found an option that would provide our readers with the answers. We thought we were doing a good thing. At least a couple dozen readers have let us know we failed —miserably. Who knew 81 little squares could cause such uproar?
The new puzzle, in making room to include the answer grid, has smaller squares. We reasoned that would be acceptable because the squares are about the same size as the squares in our crossword puzzle. Our readers told us how wrong we were.
In determining the correct answer puzzle workers make note of options in the open square, eliminating the options that don’t work as they fill in the blanks. Some readers have described our new Sudoku puzzle as “absolutely useless.”
We’ve pondered various options, but as yet have no viable solution to the problem we created.
Be patient and don’t give up on us. We hear you and we’re trying to come up with a resolution.
* * *
One of my jobs as Reader Representative is to handle corrections. Sometimes those errors are obvious and sometimes they are more subtle. Sometimes we even dispute the fact that someone thinks we made an error.
Such was the case when a BISD spokeswoman called to complain about a perceived error in a Sunday, Oct. 18, story saying the cost of the district’s athletic complex rose by $14 million.
The argument was that, since the district figured in inflation and other fees as part of the $388.6 million bond package passed in 2007, that the rise in the cost from $29 million to $44 million was always expected and part of the original issue voters approved.
A check of The Enterprise archives showed, several times, those voters were told, on our pages, that the cost of the complex would be $29 million. Yes, the bond issue included $72 million for inflation and $4.6 million for a regional construction premium, but a 48 percent change for one project seems out of the realm of planned costs.
We chose to stand by our story, because BISD never questioned that original figure before the election.
Meanwhile Dr. Carrol Thomas, BISD’s superintendent is complaining that members of the media are misrepresenting the facts.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 4:11 PM
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