Bad news folks, I’m afraid: the Samurai Sudoku puzzle printed in the Comics section of The Washington Post on Sunday, December 27, 2009, would’ve been the last Samurai puzzle printed in this newspaper. After four years and more than 200 Samurai puzzles, they have decided to stop this feature.
From the editor: “The change is part of a larger agreement … and is not a result of any dissatisfaction with your puzzle.”
On the other hand, my Samurai puzzles will continue to feature in the Washington Express (the free newspaper) every Friday.
As a reminder to those who enjoy my Samurais, you can find two of them every week on the
Samurai Sudoku page.
Or, you can order my books with Samurai puzzles here:
UPDATE: A few months later,
Washington post restarted publishing my Samurai puzzles!
15 Comments
It is truly a sad day in Washington!!!
Yikes! The Post got rid of the Acrostic puzzle on Saturday and now the Samurai on Sunday. The weekends hardly seem special.
But what about a Samurai for December 29? I particularly like the diagonal ones on Tuesdays.
Can we petition for them to start printing again?
Susan, I forgot to update the Samurai page on Tuesday. I will do that in a minute.
Other Susan: I guess you could try petitioning and I’d be proud if you did that, so good luck! 🙂
The Post didn’t really get rid of Sudoku from the Sunday’s comics section, they just changed vendors. On 1/3/2010 they published a “Sudoku Monster”, a 16×16 grid using 16 numbers (0-F). They’re getting it from “Knight Features/Distributed by Universal Uclick.
Boo on them!
Sad!!! I will miss it.
My wife and I enjoy the Samurai puzzles and do them faithfully – yours on Tuesdays and Saturdays and another that’s only available on Sundays. Thank you for your work. We recently found the sample “non-consecutive samurai” on your website and each spent about 3 days doing that one! It was challenging. Sometimes I don’t think newspaper editors know what really sells their papers – news has multiple sources, its the extras that keep me buying the Sunday paper.
I screamed when I didn’t see my Samurai last Sunday but I gamely tried the new “Monster.” I have been doing various types of puzzles for over 25 years, and I found the Monster cognitively depleting and a chore. Puzzles should be challenging but always fun, otherwise they are not worth doing. The Samurai is rewarding because it is fun and neat the way the 5 grids fit together. When I saw the Monster in the paper again this morning, I sent an e-mail to the Washington Post providing numerous details about the superiority of the Samurai compared to the Monster. I hope they listen.
I agree with all of the other comments. The new Washington Post Sunday puzzle is not as much fun as Samarai Sudoku. If they switched to the new vendor for $$ reasons our best option is dissenting with our cancellations.
I will miss your puzzle but not as much as the Washington Post that I will not renew this year.
I will miss your puzzle every week. The upside of this loss is I will not have to walk to my mail box to get the Washington Post Paper after my subscription lapses. Thanks for many fun puzzles.
BUMMER I hope the Post knows what it’s doing.
Don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater
Very disappointed that your puzzles are no longer in the Post. I will most likely let the subscription lag and will notify them the reason for doing do. Don’t like the monster puzzles nearly as well!!
Another reason not to buy newspapers. I like others here bought the papers for the extra’s like Samarai. Thanks for the website.
How about a Samarai APP?
Folks, The Washington Post WILL restart with my Samurai Sudoku puzzles. Read about it here:
http://www.djapedjape.com/category/washington-post/