Lyghtle: Here's what we were thinking about the comics

"What Was I Thinking?" is a popular country song from a few years back. It recounts a young man's risky courtship of his Southern girlfriend and the trouble that ensues.

But the title also accurately describes the question posed most often to me by many longtime Bee readers since we unveiled some organizational and content changes to our puzzles and comics lineup Tuesday.

The feedback -- in dozens of phone calls, messages and e-mails to Features Editor Deke Farrow and me -- has been insightful. We have listened, very attentively.

It's always enlightening to learn how people use or read the paper.

For instance, many of you expressed concern with the games being spread over two pages, which led to the crossword puzzle and Sudoku printing back-to-back -- and disrupting the morning routines of some couples who wanted to work them at the same time.

Others of you objected to having to turn the pages over to complete all the puzzles, rather than conveniently being able to fold one page in half.

Some shared that they cut the various games out, put them on clipboards and work them throughout the day. One very nice lady told me she saves the crossword to do last, right before she goes to bed each night.

I now better appreciate the feelings of many sharp-eyed readers (including my wife) who don't want the solutions displayed adjacent to the puzzles, even if they're upside-down or sideways. It's a distraction, they explained -- not that they ever would be tempted to peek.

I also learned that one reader integrates his ability to solve puzzles into his exercise routine. A rare mistake or taking too long means extra miles on the stationary bike or Stairmaster.

"Where's Dennis?" or "Beetle" or "Family Circus" were other frequent questions last week. The loyalty, passion, disappointment and, in some cases, even anger attached to replacement of these newspaper staples was impressive -- and not entirely unexpected. (For the record: We restored "Family Circus" on Friday. It will run daily below the Ask Amy advice column.)

In the cases of "Dennis the Menace" and "Beetle Bailey," we felt both long-running strips were frequently recycling story lines mostly unchanged since I was a boy in the '60s. Their fans might argue, "That's the point. They're familiar. Comfortable. Like a favorite sweater or a nice pair of slippers."

But even that sweater or those slippers eventually need to be replaced. And so we chose to move ahead with comics we think are more current, with new characters and plots. In time, we hope that "Oh, Brother," "Dustin," "Fort Knox" or "Bizarro" may win over some of those readers.

And, of course, many of the other all-time favorite comics remain -- from "Peanuts" to "Blondie" to "For Better or Worse" and "Frank and Ernest."

Some comics fans wondered why we couldn't put them all on the same page, which is the flip side of the same organizational question asked by puzzle solvers.

First, we publish more comics than will fit on one page, which is why we tried to spread them out.

But to the broader question of can we rearrange the pages to put all the games together (while moving the solutions away from the puzzles) and also run a page of mostly comics, the answer is, "Yes." We can, but it will take a week or so to come up with an improved layout.

Rest assured: Our intent never was to annoy or frustrate some of our most loyal customers. We appreciate you and value your business too much. Your well- reasoned suggestions have provided us with some practical solutions. And, hopefully, will help avoid more people wondering, "What was I thinking?"

Bee Managing Editor Dave Lyghtle can be reached at dlyghtle@modbee.com or 578-2315.