Readers Give Feedback About Southern California Living

What have you done to Life & Style? This new format is just awful!!! You had a perfectly good section and now you have ruined it. Why can’t you leave Abby, Ann and Off-Kilter on the same page and leave the comics on just two pages? It’s very annoying to have to keep flipping pages when you’re eating breakfast and you have a time limit on how long you can take for breakfast before you leave for work. I need my “fix” of comics, Ann, Abby, Off-Kilter and Laugh Lines in the morning to help me get through my hectic legal days. I am a paralegal and I don’t have time to read the serious stuff until I get home. Please reconsider what you have done. I hope I’m not the only one who feels this way.

GAYLE MOSKOWITZ

Bring back the convenience and quality of a two-paged comic page along with the hilarious comic stylings of the comic strip “Free for All.” If you have to, get rid of “Family Circus” or “Peanuts,” or better yet, “Cathy.”

GARY DUTRO

I wish you would put back “Apt. 3-G” and get rid of “Sylvia”!

VICTORIA I. PATERNO

I write on behalf of a talented journalist, talk show host, good friend and devoted fan of those liberated women in Apt. 3-G. If a supremely intelligent and involved person like Kitty Felde cares so much about these three independent, pen-and-ink go-getters, just imagine how many other readers are in deep depression over your recent apartment cleaning? Sure, most of them are probably still in the closet, unwilling to lay their conviction and passion on the line like Kitty, but they’re out there.

No, I’m not really one of the faithful. Yet I admit to looking in on the girls now and then, just to make sure cruel reality has not dampened their spirit.

I think the reworking of the section is worthy of praise. Good job! I just hope it’s not too late to restore these few panels of daily drama, a soap opera that really left its mark on all who read it.

MAT KAPLAN

I was very disappointed to see you cancel the comic strip “Free for All.” I think this has been a consistently funny strip in the short time it has been in the L.A. Times. I don’t understand why you would cancel a strip with such promise while keeping strips such as “Momma,” “Family Circus,” “Crock” etc. that haven’t been funny in years.

RYAN BILBREY

My son and I are both disappointed that you have withdrawn the comic strip “Free for All.” This was an intelligent, sarcastic, often biting and insightful strip. We’re thrilled “Rugrats” is gone, couldn’t care less about “Apt. 3-G” and would gladly give up “Momma” or “Mutts” for the return of “Free for All.”

ANN DALLAVALLE and PETER SCHOMBERT

“Free for All” was one of the best strips in the comics. There were better candidates to cut than “Free for All.” The list is long, but a few that pop to mind are: “Mary Worth,” “9 Chickweed Lane,” “Baby Blues,” “Sylvia,” “Heathcliff,” “Family Circus,” “For Better or Worse.”

JIM RUEFF

I don’t understand why The Times can’t get it right.

The crossword should be on the lower right hand page so that it can be folded and easily worked on. The bridge column should be located similarly, on an outside page, in a single column, so that the bidding can be covered.

RAY BOSTON

You have placed the crossword puzzle in the worst place! It should be where it was before, on Page 2 or 3 of the Classified section. It needs to be by itself. It has to be alone--because of the nature of the thing. It is a solitary game.

MAURINE REEDY RUZEK

I’m the Daily Bridge Column and I’d really like to thank you for rescuing me from the dark, lonely Classified section to the sparkling new Southern California Living section. It’s really cool being there, in full view! I know I’m not Mr. Crossword Puzzle, but I am a tough game, honest! Try me, you’ll like me!

KENNETH J. ARTINGSTALL

My husband reads the comics. I do the crossword puzzle. (Note: I cut the crossword puzzle out of the paper and solve at my leisure.) You have put the crossword in your new revamped section and the puzzle is backed by the comics. I do not consider this to be a smart idea. Please move the puzzle back where it was and help us continue a 43-years-plus wonderful marriage. Thank you.

MRS. (WALTER) MARIE MOCZARNY

A few comments on your changes:

* It’s disappointing to lose the comic “Apt. 3-G,” but I suppose if I had to choose from the three serialized strips, that would have been my pick to drop.

* The “new look” on Sunday with Abby, Ann, etc., is close to awful. Looks like someone is trying to cram too much into too little space. On the other hand, I notice in Tuesday’s paper the columns are interspersed with the funnies, so that’s better.

* The Kids’ Page is fabulous. I commend The Times for the Reading by 9 effort. My 7-year-old will read this page every day, as long as the rest of the section is not objectionable.

I’m a lifelong newspaper reader and support all your efforts to reinstate reading as a critical life skill.

SUSAN ROGERS