Chatterbox

"It's simply depressing to read the San Francisco Chronicle or Examiner, the Houston Post, the Atlanta Constitution, the Denver Post," writes David Remnick in a squishy look at Ben Bradlee's memoirs in the Sept. 18 New Yorker. "Once great and near-great papers in major cities are in retreat." ... But at least you could break the back of a Chihuahua with a our local Sunday paper. The Aug. 17 San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle weighs in at 2 pounds 6 ounces, although sections of the newspaper containing editorial account for only 1 pound 1 ounce of that mass.