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Customer Reviews of San Jose Mercury News

"The Bay Area's Best" ain't half bad
Every morning I walk out to the driveway, and every morning the Merc is there, waitin' for me. The front page tends to look like that of most regional news rags: The big international/national story front-and center (or a big state/local scoop if it's a slow news day), surrounded by secondary bits of state and/or local interest. Other than taking a look at the daily Map-Of-Occupation in the middle of the front pages during the recent war with Iraq, I usually only glance at the top stories on the front page, and move on to the serious news...

...the Sports pages, which usually is the third section in. The San Francisco Chronicle may have the most noted bay area sports journalists in Glenn Dickey and C.W. Nevius, and the Oakland Tribune may boast the most in-depth coverage of the Raiders, A's, and Warriors. But when it comes to putting to some of the most entertaining smart-a**ed remarks and commentary on the sports scene to press, The Merc's own Mark Purdy and Bud Geracie are a pretty tough duo to top. Geracie's `In the Wake of the Week' columns, which usually appear every Saturday, collect both his material and that of other sports figures that break down the best and worst of the previous seven days of athletic competition in quick shots. My personal fave bit from a recent `Wake' article mentioned that Raiders QB Rich Gannon threw out the opening pitch at a Minnesota Twins game-- which Geracie then quips "was intercepted and returned for a touchdown", taking a shot at Gannon's horrific performance in Super Bowl XXXVII. That one had me bustin' out for a full minute!

Then there's Mark Purdy, who has a talent for getting the average Merc-reading sports nut to both love and hate him for his thoughts on the local and national sports landscape. Purdy's (usually) monthly `Better Mail Than Jail' columns, where he fields the worst bits of hate-mail from disgruntled bay-area fans, is a veritable showcase of his ability to both entertain and infuriate his readers. His rejoinders to the bevy of selected spiteful rants tend to be pretty biting and ofttimes a bit condescending. He usually ends his `Mail-Jail' write-ups with a positive e-mail from a fan who tells him to "keep taking it to `em", thus ending the column on a positive note. Love him, hate him, or (like me) both- Purdy rarely fails to entertain!

Speaking of entertainment: The Eye, a special section included in the Merc every Friday, is a guide to the latest theatrical and musical releases, upcoming TV and radio shows, theatre, and dining venues in the south bay and lower peninsula. The big Hollywood blockbuster being released that Friday tends to occupy the Eye's cover, and is also given a big review on the first page. The Merc's film reviewers tend to be pretty tough on the big-blockbuster-of-the-week; I've rarely seen one achieve more than three-and-a-half stars by whoever is writing up the assessment that week. But if you're still set on seeing the big flick in spite of whatever the critics say, the Eye-- and the Arts & Entertainment section on all the other days of the week-- lists all of the movies that are presently running, the theatres they're all playing at, and show times.

As one might expect, the Business section tends to cover the Silicon Valley-based tech firms alongside the day's national & international news-makers in the world of finance. The previous day's closing NYSE, NASDAQ, American Exchange, and Mutual Funds results are listed in the last four pages of the Business pages every Tuesday through Saturday. Starting up the stock listings are the previous day's results of the major Silicon Valley-based firms from the three major exchanges.

The funnies- which presently include Luann �, Garfield �, FoxTrot �, The Boondocks �, Mallard Fillmore � and Doonesbury � among others- can be found in the Arts & Entertainment section every weekday and Saturday. The Sunday A&E includes the weekly nationally-syndicated Dave Barry column, though I haven't considered him funny in years (and even then, I found him only slightly amusing). Also included every Sunday is the local TV listings book and Parade magazine. However, if you missed out on getting the TV book, you can always look through the daily Arts & Entertainment pages, which includes that day's prime-time schedule!

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