Reader: Messing with the
comics again. You are using
old survey results to elimi-
nate comics that are miles
ahead of some of the newer
ones. Sherman’s Lagoon in
really funny on almost a
daily basis. Marvin is so-so,
and can be at least cute.
Mutts and Brewster
Rockit aren’t even worth a
chuckle.  How about a new
survey before you do some-
thing so drastic?
— Mindi  Pugh

Reader:I can understand
your wanting to go to a
more up-to-date format.
Saving paper is a good idea
as it saves trees. What I
want saved is “Sherman’s
Lagoon.”
I hope my letter and oth-
ers I am sure you receive
will change your decision.
Sharks Rule! 
—Phillip Anderson

Reader: Really disap-
pointed with the paper. The
smaller size? Not good,
awful actually. You say “oth-
ers” use this format? I have
not seen it.
You get rid of Sherman’s
Lagoon and leave idiotic
comics like “Mutts.” You
have not taken a comics
poll in a very long time. It
would have been nice if
you had done one.
I have been a subscriber
for over 40 years, unfortu-
nately that is about to
change, too. I hate to do it,
because I enjoyed the
paper.
Sorry to see you go, but I
have a feeling I am not the
only one jumping ship. Too
bad, but you have not lis-
tened to your subscribers
in the past, why start now?
—Neal Janzen

Reader: You have spent
two articles saying how
GREAT your new format is,
and you tell us how GREAT
we will think it is “once
readers become accus-
tomed to the new format.”
Please be advised that you
do not speak for us. 
Concerning the NEW
TYPE, you do not tell the
truth when you state you
“didn’t make it smaller.”
“Utopia” is much smaller
and almost impossible to
read.
You have taken out our
favorite cartoon, Sherman’s
Lagoon, to save space for
useless stuff. The comics
are still the best part of this
paper — add another skin-
ny page for them.
—Brown Higginbotham

Reader:I wanted to com-
plain about eliminating
Sherman’s Lagoon.
Here are some you can
get rid of that are a lot
worse: Retail, Brewster
Rocket, Red & Rover, Fred
Bassett, Mutts and Pickles.
—Adam Jones

Reader: I just wanted to
say that I am very pleased
with what you’ve done with
the paper.
The smaller pages are
easier to handle. I am visu-
ally impaired, but the print
is good and you’ve brought
daytime TVback, all of our
comics are back and all of
the editorials.
I love the pictures, espe-
cially Casey Christie’s. I
really think this is great.
Thank you for the paper.
I’m a 35-year subscriber.
—Edie Lyons

Reader:I take your paper
but I don’t like your little
mini paper. If you’re trying
to save some money why
don’t you just charge more
for the damn paper. Give
me back what I can see.
—Ray Moore

Reader:I’d like to tell you
that your TVGuide is not
readable. You have to use a
magnifying glass.
I would appreciate it if
you could do something for
all of us.
—Sally
Morrison

Reader: I just wanted to
tell you that I’ve been tak-
ing your paper for more
than 70 years and I really
enjoyed Sherman’s Lagoon
and Marvin. I’m very disap-
pointed that you cut them.
Also, the crossword puz-
zle should be moved up
higher on the page —
above the fold. It is very dif-
ficult to do with the fold in
the middle of it.
—Mrs.Stull

Reader: On the Weather
section of your paper Tues-
day, you had Salem, Ore-
gon, listed twice, but you
left off Seattle, Washington,
which has been on there
previously. I feel Washing-
ton should have a little
clout since you didn’t list
any town in the state of
Washington.
— Betty Shaffer

Reader: Is there any rea-
son you couldn’t use a one
point smaller font for the
Horoscope so there would
be room for the whole “Ask
Heloise” column? I looked
at last week’s papers and it
seems like one point small-
er would be the same as we
were used to before. 
By the way, I too, am one
who has saved the Sunday
Mini Page for grandkids. I
am glad you are at least
keeping it, even though you
had to change the format,
so we have the whole con-
tent.
I do disagree with the
writer to Sound Off about
the smaller print. I find kids
can read smaller print
much easier than those of
us who are older!!
— Bobbie Hulson

Reader: Thank you,
thank you for making the
newspaper smaller and yet
giving us everything like
before. It’s so much easier
to read now when I sit near
the pool in the morning. I
applaud you for taking this
step. 
— Mardi Hinse, sub-
scriber for over 30 years.

Reader: I just wanted to
call and thank Jenner, I
guess, for putting the TV
Guide back in. I didn’t like
him for quite a while, but
now I’m back loving him
again. I’m very happy now.
Thank you.
—Rita Barlow

Reader:I’m just calling to
say I do not like the new
format of your newspaper
nor does my husband. We
don’t like it. It’s too small.
The print’s too small. It’s
hard to read. We’d be will-
ing to pay more for a news-
paper that you can read.
I hope a lot of other peo-
ple are making the same
complaint. We’ll pay more
money for a newspaper like
you had before this stupid
thing that somebody came
up with. Even though you
say it’s keeping cost down,
oh well, everything else is
going up. Why not the
newspaper, too?
— Ms.Gonzales

Reader: I definitely do
not like the smaller-sized
newspaper. It no longer fits
properly in the bottom of
the rabbit’s cage. I have to
use two sections now!
—Frank Valente

Reader:I’m calling about
your new format for the TV
listings. You left out Speed
Channel. I want to get an
answer for that.
Thank you very much.
—Art Bagnall

Jenner: We know we’re
playing with fire when we
mess with the comics.
When we decided we
needed to drop two comics
we dropped “Sherman’s
Lagoon” and “Marvin”
because reader feedback in
the past suggested their fol-
lowings weren’t that strong.
We’ve received next to no
complaints about losing
“Marvin”; less than two
dozen about “Sherman’s
Lagoon.”
In the meantime, readers
should note that while we
cancelled the daily strip, it
still appears in Sunday’s
comics.
As for the size of our news
body type, we did not
shrink it. We did change the
font to Utopia, which we
feel is more readable.
We also did not reduce
the size of our classified
type, although we did
reduce the spacing
between classified ads.
We’ve asked the compa-
ny that produces our TV
data to increase the size of
the type on that page.
Readers should see the
larger type size appear by
month’s end. And we’ll get
the Speed channel back in
the listings.
The listing of national
cities contained a couple of
errors on the day we intro-
duced our new Weather
Page, those have been fixed
and cities like Seattle are
once again in the list.
Finally, we moved the
daily crossword back to the
top of the puzzle page.
Thanks to all those read-
ers who shared their opin-
ions about our new format.

Reader: Thursday morn-
ing I ate breakfast without
the usual Bakersfield Cali-
fornianas part of the decor.
I am over 90 years old and
live in a wheelchair; there-
fore, my useful activities
are rather limited so the
newspaper consumes
much of my time in the
morning.
The comics section livens
up my day with Dagwood’s
dawdling, Luann’s naivete,
Beetle’s composure and
Fred Bassett’s rationaliza-
tions. The word games and
puzzles have a way of keep-
ing my brain functioning.
I could call The Californ-
ianand be obnoxious but
some glitch happens about
every three years which cal-
culates out to be better
than 99.9 percent perfect!
With that record, who am I
to “cast stones?”
We don’t appreciate
some things until they are
not there anymore, but this
is only temporarily tempo-
rary; be thankful!
—Harvey Brockmeyer

Jenner: That’s the nicest
complaint we’ve received
in a while.
A glitch in the software
we use to produce plates
prevented us from starting
our presses at the normal
time Wednesday night. We
usually are running the
presses shortly after mid-
night and have all the
papers in the city delivered
by 5 a.m. on weekdays.
Thursday’s press run didn’t
begin till after 5. The prob-
lem has now been fixed.
We received thousands of
calls from subscribers won-
dering where their papers
were — so many they took
down our switchboard.
I apologize for the incon-
venience to our readers. It’s
impressive how many peo-
ple count on us to help
them start their day.

Reader: The front page
headline of Tuesday’s paper
was really inappropriate.
The article features a photo
of a woman clearly devas-
tated at the loss of her
child, a casualty of the war
between Georgia and Rus-
sia. Your “Empire Strikes
Back” headline seems flip
and unbelievably unfeel-
ing.  Shame on you!
—Paula Ransom

Jenner: Editors who
wrote that headline were
referring to the “Evil
Empire”label given to Rus-
sia by the late President
Reagan. They didn’t mean
to be flip.
However, the headline
was subject to several inter-
pretations, and I think we
should’ve played it straight.
It’s much more impor-
tant to be clear than to be
clever.