Mark Fischenich: Ask Us: It's true: You know who had no clue it was printing Sudoku times two

Dec. 18—Q: Dear Ask Us Guy,

I love the new format the Sunday Free Press is using for the comics-puzzle section. But why do they publish the same Sudoku puzzle twice? Please give the puzzle-lovers two different puzzles or save on ink and only print it once.

A: The new tabloid-style Sunday comics section, which debuted earlier this fall, offers readers their traditional funnies but also a dozen or so puzzles ranging from crosswords to code-breaking challenges to word searches. The new section also provides two of the traditional number-grid puzzles known as Sudoku, an increase of one from the previous version of the Sunday Free Press.

But the reader is right: The newspaper was publishing the exact same Sudoku on two different pages of the comics section.

Ask Us Guy, who is typically humbled by the arduous Sudoku in the TV guide of the Saturday Free Press and focuses on the New York Times Crossword in the Sunday Free Press, hadn't noticed the repetitive Sudoku issue.

Neither had the folks at The Free Press who assemble the "Sunday Comics and Puzzles Book," according to Free Press Publisher Steve Jameson.

"We should thank the reader for pointing this out," Jameson said when the issue was forwarded to him. "The unfortunate answer is that none of us here are Sudoku players so we never even took a look at the two puzzles to check to see if they were different or the same. We more look at the pages and say, 'Yep, everything is on the page that needs to be there' and call it a day. So, going forward, we'll correct this. We'll be placing a second Sudoku puzzle that is actually different from the other one ... we think. We're journalists, not math whizzes so we try to avoid anything with too many numbers in it."

Now, Suck Up Gu — umm — Ask Us Guy thinks it's important to point out that his ultimate boss — once again showing his consummate professionalism and unparalleled dedication to the happiness of Free Press customers — was true to his word. As soon as Jameson was made aware of the problem, it was immediately corrected so that readers are now getting two distinct Sudokus in their Sunday Free Press.

Q: Ask Ya,

Will the utility companies bring back the drop-off boxes at the grocery stores? Not only did they help get our bills paid on time but also probably brought a lot of business to the stores. (As long as you're there ... .)

A: Ask Ya Guy is almost certain that utilities will not be bringing back the supermarket drop boxes. While the payment option was convenient for people who like to pay their bills with old-fashioned bank checks, most electricity and natural gas companies — and municipalities, such as the city of Mankato, that bill for water/wastewater and garbage — are doing everything they can to get people to switch from checks to auto-pay.

Those automatic deductions guarantee the bills are paid each month and on time, they reduce the number of staff hours spent opening envelopes and recording payments, and they avoid the need to run to various supermarkets to empty the drop boxes.

For several years, Mankato actually paid utility customers to switch to the auto-pay thing, granting people a small monthly discount when they did. The discount was discontinued this year both as a money-saver and because city officials are convinced people are going to go with the convenience of auto-pay even if there's no financial incentive.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to [email protected]; put Ask Us in the subject line.