Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com.
I was disappointed but not surprised to learn that the Bangor Daily News will no longer publish a print edition on Mondays. No doubt printing costs have risen substantially in recent years. Even so, a good many of us print subscribers bear the price increases and cutbacks and still value the paper edition as a kind of life preserver.
Why is that? In my case, I get most of my hard news through other online and print subscriptions. I know I can see BDN’s sports and local news, reviews and funnies online, though I would rather not have to read a screen. Puzzles are where the scale tips. I expect the Monday BDN online will still carry CryptoQuip — my favorite — and Jumble, and I should be able to copy off those games longhand. But the crossword, Sudoku and the ScrabbleGrams are too complex to be easily copied; they need their own grids to be played.
I hope BDN’s management will want to consider a simple solution. If the paper intends to continue running the puzzles in its Monday online-only edition, it will still be paying for the privilege. Could the paper run Monday’s puzzles in the preceding Saturday’s print edition? That would spare ardent puzzle fans a lot of transcribing trouble and likely ensure their enduring gratitude.
William Nelson
Belfast