Cross Words

I love all of our readers, each and every one. I really do. But that's not to say that some of our readers couldn't use some serious therapy.

This comment stems from the fact that we goofed up last week and didn't run the crossword puzzle. It was listed on our contents page, and it was supposed to be in the paper. But from what I understand, someone messed up and didn't place it on the appropriate page, and pretty soon, 48,000 copies of the paper were hitting the streets sans crossword puzzle.

This led to a stunning number of phone calls and e-mails. Some were very polite and curious, wondering why the puzzle was missing. Those are all well and good.

Then there were the ANGRY phone calls and e-mails.

One woman--who, of course, didn't leave a name or phone number--left me a voicemail bitching me out and concluding with something to the effect of, "The crossword's the only reason I pick up your stupid paper." One person e-mailed and asked, in all caps, "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?"

To those of you who were seemingly blowing gaskets when you wrote or called, I encourage you to do the following: Take a deep breath. Enter a happy place. Then, ponder the fact that your emotions were twisted into a knot because of a missing crossword puzzle in a weekly newspaper. Finally, think about that fact a little more. Then seek help.

Our sincere apologies for the missing puzzle. And while you're all welcome to contact me for any reason--seriously--for future reference, I have nothing to do with the crossword puzzle. It's a classified-department thing, and if this ever happens again, and you want to contact someone who actually can do something about the matter, please contact Sean Ardry at 295-4218 or sardry@azbiz.com.

We love y'all. Really.