One of the things that surprised me talking to people about newspapers is how many of them see the crossword as its most important part. Take out the news, sports, classified, even the front page flag and they’ll live with it. But touch their New York Times crossword and there’s hell to pay.

The Gazette is considering adding Deducto to its puzzles page. Deducto is a symbol-based deductive reasoning puzzle much like Sudoku, but its rules make little sense and there’s no challenge to it.

Initial response from select readers about the idea has so far been skewed negative. They’re happy with their crossword (or their Sudoku), and this puzzle’s instructions seem too complicated and uninteresting to bother learning.

Feel free to make your jokes here: Gazette readers can’t do deductive reasoning; Gazette readers can’t read; Gazette readers are allergic to new ideas.

Would you like to see this game added to your newspaper? It’s a moot point with me since I get my paper electronically and I’m not about to write on my screen.

UPDATE (March 25): The Gazette has apparently scrapped the idea after receiving a very unenthusiastic response (PDF).