Puzzle kerfuffle: I just want to speak in support of the slightly harder crossword puzzle that had begun appearing recently in The Day, before a decision was reached to revert to the easier puzzle. I know you can't please everyone, but my wife and I could quickly complete the easier puzzle every day, without assistance or consulting each other. The slightly harder puzzle was just difficult enough that we sometimes needed help from each other with a couple of answers — in other words, it challenged us. Perhaps a compromise solution would be for The Day to graduate puzzle difficulty slightly throughout the week, so the Monday puzzle is easy, with each successive puzzle getting more difficult, up to a Sunday crescendo of maximum difficulty — as some other newspapers do.

John Brice

Mystic