I learned to play bridge in college — where our group assigned a certain degree-of-difficulty rating to the rubbers by insisting that you be able to hold your liquor and carry on a witty and philosophical conversation at the same time you were trying to finesse the queen to grab an extra trick.
At heart, I am a spades aficionado — which also defines me as a crap-shooter personality type. Spades is a card game with a bidding system based on the number of tricks you can take when spades are always the trump card. There is an attitude to the game that allows the person holding the spade ace to paste it on his forehead when the game gets tight. I can guarantee The Tribune will never run a daily column on spades.
For a long time we have run a daily column on bridge, however. When management announced a few weeks ago that the column would disappear from the comic pages, bridge-lovers mobilized more efficiently than Patton’s tank corps in World War II. They called; they wrote; they broke us down. Starting Monday, a bridge column by Phillip Alder — shorter than the Aces on Bridge we have been running — will appear on a daily basis.
There are other changes coming on the comics pages. First, the comics will run on two pages rather than three, so that third page can be used to expand coverage of TV and daily entertainment events.
To keep the bridge column and pack the funnies onto two pages, several comics have been eliminated: Low scores on the readership survey performed earlier this year doomed Judge Parker, Mary Worth, Gasoline Alley, Mulch, Rudy Park, La Cucaracha and Dinette Set comics and the Wuzzles and Cryptoquote puzzles. The astrology column will also change.
Now, here comes the tough part. Sit down and take some deep breaths. The Tribune is changing the features sections. Again. This change also begins Monday. But, the good news is that once these changes are made, according to Managing Editor Tim Fitzpatrick, “hopefully, we are set for a while.” One would pray so.
Here’s the new line-up:
* Mondays — The Utah Living/Home & Family section covers parenting and family dynamics as well as home design trends and other domestic issues. Robert Kirby’s humor column will appear in this section.
* Tuesdays — The Utah Living/Health & Science section will include stories on health, fitness and science, as well as a front-page column with health and science news capsules. The “Pop Top” page — brief items on new CD and DVD releases, concert reviews, box-office and Billboard rankings — continues, moving to a color page on the back of the section.
* Wednesdays — With home and family coverage in the old Basics section moving to Monday’s paper, Wednesday’s Utah Living/Food & Garden section will focus more on the kitchen arts, including a look at what’s cooking in Utah restaurants and regular features on wines. The gardening column and other horticultural news continues on the back.
* Thursdays — The Utah Living/Outdoors section, focused on the people and places that make Utah an unrivaled outdoor
* Fridays — Utah Living/The Mix, a weekly roundup of arts and entertainment events around the state, will feature more about live concerts and the arts and continue to be the home for movie and dining reviews, Club Notes and the Stage and Screen page and entertainment listings.
* Saturdays — Saturday’s section becomes Utah Living/Faith, still dedicated to religion, spirituality and ethical debates in Utah and the world.
* Sundays — The Adventure section returns to its old name, Travel, with a new Travel Almanac featuring travel tips, currency exchange and other news for nomads.
A totally new Monday Business section also will debut, a guide to the coming week in finance and industry. It will appear in the back of the Utah section.
Respect for Vets: Scores of readers called and e-mailed to complain that The Tribune failed to put a story on Veterans Day in the Tuesday edition. It was an inexcusable omission. And, Executive Editor Tom Baden takes “full responsibility” for it. “I apologize to our readers. It will not happen again,” Baden said on Thursday. “We should have had prominent coverage of the importance of Veterans Day in our community.”
He explained, “We had a good story on Sunday, and a list of Tuesday activities on Monday, but that’s no excuse for what happened on Tuesday.”
While shouldering that blame, Baden praised military affairs reporter Dawn House, who “has done an extraordinary job covering veterans issues and the issues relating to the Iraq war.” He called her “an aggressive, sensitive and incisive reporter who has created great coverage.”
Habitual readers also called about the lack of small American flags on the front page nameplate on Tuesday. For more than a decade, The Tribune has run those tiny flags on patriotic holidays. Baden was the man who made the decision to leave them off. He explained, “I am not sure the appearance of a U.S. flag is as important as having the appropriate coverage [for Veterans Day], but I understand the concerns of readers. A tradition probably should not have been abandoned in haste.”
The Reader Advocate’s phone number is (801) 257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.
This Week’s Stats
76 Number of readers who missed the American flag on Veterans Day
154 Number of readers who want to keep the daily bridge column
98 Number of readers who complained about lack of Veterans Day stories on Tuesday
63 Number of readers who think The Tribune has too many local stories on the front page
