Newspaper admits repeat puzzle deception

A local newspaper has admitted publishing the same sudoku puzzle every day for over four years.

Puzzle fans took a long time to spot the deception, but one reader eventually noticed and complained.

The local paper admitted repeating the puzzle and said this was because it could only afford the royalty payment for one sudoku.  It then reused the same puzzle, by rotating or reflecting the number grid and changing the digits - swapping them or cycling through them.  Other changes included providing more or fewer digits in the starting grid.

One regular reader said, 'fair play, I didn't spot what they did.  I do the sudoku every day and I enjoyed the puzzles just the same.  Some people think sudoku is boring, but I find it relaxing and restful.  It's time out.'

Another fan was incensed.  'This makes a mockery of the intellectual challenge.  It's sly and dishonest and unethical.  It breaks the unwritten contract between the paper and its readers.  I feel like an idiot for spending all that time solving the same puzzle again and again, and I didn't even notice.  I'll never buy the paper again.  I've complained to the editor, the press regulator, the mayor, my MP and Gyles Brandreth.  I'm demanding millions of pounds in compensation for my wasted time and the psychological damage.  I'll never, ever trust a newspaper again.'

image from pixabay

www.newsbiscuit.com

Local news reporter 'on assignment'

Man ‘disappointed’ that letters to local paper have negligible effect

Local bore Gary Bullingdon has expressed his ‘disappointment’, ‘surprise’ and ‘disgust’ that – despite hundreds of letters to his local newspaper – nothing seems to change.

‘Take last week as a case in point’, he told NewsBiscuit. ‘I described seeing a youth dropping his crisp packet on the floor and asked why oh why parents didn’t bring their children up properly. Today I saw the SAME youth drop an empty COKE can on the floor in almost the SAME spot. Unbelievable’.

If the powers-that-be had listened to Gary over the years his town would be free of litter, schools would have parking exclusion zones at peak times, National Service would instil discipline in young people and automated checkouts in supermarkets would all be gone.

‘It’s almost as if the people with the power aren’t listening’, Gary said. ‘Or reading, I should say. It’s obvious that they don’t know what to do, why not just check out the Herald every Thursday for some good suggestions? I know the editor, maybe he could do a sort of Suggestions Box for the town! That’s a cracking idea, where’s my green biro’.

We tried to contact the editor of Gary’s local paper but he was hiding behind a cupboard until he realised we hadn’t brought Gary with us.

‘Every town has one’, he explained. ‘Things do happen here, you understand, just not often enough. The last time we had a big story was the mass suicide of Gary’s neighbours. Understandable, really’.

Image: pixabay/Darkmoon_art