Report to Readers by Susan LoTempio

God Squad squabble

I hope you've noticed the nifty little feature called "We Got Mail," which appears in Sunday Viewpoints. It's a list of the Top 5 topics on the minds of those who wrote to Everybody's Column (our letters to the editor) that week.

The Top 5 is a mix of local, world, state and national issues, and usually you'll find criticism of the war in Iraq at the top of the list. But last Sunday, something unusual crept onto the list - criticism of a recent God Squad column.

Readers were upset with the May 12 column (it appeared in the Weekend Life section) that dealt with the issue of donating a body to science.

Authors Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Tom Hartman wrote that donating a body to a medical school "is a more difficult ethical and religious call," than the donation of organs. They had other concerns, as well.

Enough readers were upset by the rabbi and priest's comments that the controversy rose to No. 3 on the "We Got Mail" list for the week. Two of the letters can be read at these links.

Buffalo has a strong religious tradition, and this isn't the first time the God Squad column ruffled some feathers among the faithful. I doubt it'll be the last time.

From the Home Front

  One of the top complaints we hear from readers goes something like this: Why is there such a  constant diet of "bad" news in your paper?

Why don't you ever print "good" news; stories about the good things that people do.

  That's when I think about Susan Martin's column, From the Home Front.

I know people who buy the Friday paper just to read her column in the Home & Garden section.

It differs from, say, Donn Esmonde's column because it doesn't deal with hard news. In fact, it's vastly different from anything else in the paper because, technically,  it doesn't deal with anything.
Anything except what's important and relevant to every family in the community.

Martin writes about things that are hard to describe, but easy to relate to. Today's column about phones is a great example. Who doesn't have a memory of family phone issues from the days when we were growing up?

Like all good columnists, Martin struggles with finding just the right topic, then flushing it out with the perfect (and personal) anecdotes. She often gets her ideas in the middle of the night, she's told me.

But, boy, do readers respond.  A column last year about adopting a third cat generated huge response from people who completely understood the situation. An even bigger response came after she wrote about what grandkids call their grandparents. And the feedback she received about her column on laundry chutes even surprised her.

Readers often ask her about the regular cast of characters who appear in the column - her daughter, husband, mother - and the three cats, of course. It's as if her family has become part of readers' families.

Someone who turns to Jerry Sullivan's column in the Sports section as soon as they get the Friday paper may not also turn to Martin's column. But many women tell us they want more to read in The News that's about their lives and interests and families.

That's why From the Home Front is hugely popular with readers, especially women. And it offers, at least on Fridays, a bit of happy reading that all readers clamor for.

Here's the link to her most recent column. Enjoy!