One of the many benefits of our 10-day trip across Turkey has been the wide range of individuals we've had access to, from the prime minister to villagers living in dusty poverty.

One day this week we spent the morning and lunch time with 15 to 20 students of Sabanci University, a 10-year-old private university about 25 miles outside the city core. In the evening, we split into groups of threes and fours to have dinner in the private home of ordinary Turks.

The students were eager to discuss their country's future and the role they themselves will play. The family I visited with two of my colleagues was more subdued. The students are paying $20,000 to $25,000 a year in tuition. The family of Abidin Karabulut, on the other hand, has to survive on far less than those tuition payments.

Abidin's cousin, 48-year-old Suleiman, used to be a well-paid hotel manager. However, Suleiman does not speak English and as the hotel saw its English-speaking clientele increase, it replaced Suleiman.

Suleiman now works in a publisher's warehouse, bringing home only about $400 a month. Rent on the family's four-room apartment in the Gazi Mah neighborhood is $320, so his two teenage children, each making about $480 a month, are playing key roles in the family's survival.
By comparison, Abidin's father runs a teahouse but is also a musician who can make more than $300 for performing for two hours at a wedding.

Abidin and his family are Alevis, considered an unorthodox, liberal branch of Islam. According to the BBC, it is estimated that as many as one in five Turks worships this way. Abidin says Alevis don't go to mosques because that's where Alevi was slain centuries ago. Alevis believe in both Alevi, God and Mohammed.

Abidin described three fundamentals of the Alevi faith:

-- Never lie.
-- Don't cheat on your husband or your wife
-- Don't steal from others.

Alevis don't fast during Ramadan, although they fast at other times of the year.

As for the students at the prestigious Sabanci University, members of our group heard a variety of opinions from the students, many of whom are studying management, economics and engineering. Asked “what do you fear most?” the students gave answers we would find in the U.S.:

-- Finding a job

-- The transformation around the world, especially regarding economic and social issues.

-- An economic crash

-- The polarization in Turkish politics.

One student, perhaps reflecting universal cynicism of political life, said “It's hard to be a politician in Turkey if you are honest.” Another student said simply, “Most of my generation is not interested in politics.” A third student said young people are not encouraged to enter politics and argued that such events as a military coup in 1980 discouraged students from getting involved. Still, this particular group of young Turks seemed very interested in politics and world affairs. And the vast majority said they liked Barack Obama over John McCain.

No matter the age group, when the discussion turns to how women are treated in Turkish society, the issue of wearing headscarves comes up. This mostly Muslim country is secular by constitution and practice, but the ruling AK Party has Islamist leanings. The AK-controlled government recently moved to eliminate the ban on wearing scarves in public universities. The government move was overruled by a court, but the issue still comes up frequently in many conversations with visiting journalists.

Sabanci has what it calls a middle of the road policy toward scarves. Students are allowed to wear the scarves while on campus but not in the classrooms.

One female student said “Living as a girl or a woman is very hard in Turkey.” The underlying issue on scarves, she said, “is a gender issue. The head scarf is just a symbol.”

The university president said women often hold top positions in academia, but that is less likely in other employment sectors.

“In some ways, women prefer getting older faster because it's easier for them to live as an older woman,” said another female student. Still another said “for me, in Istanbul and Sabanci, being a woman is no big deal.”

Most of the students seemed eager to see Turkey expand its role in the world. One key to attaining an increased status would be approval of Turkey's application for membership in the European Union. “We want to catch up with the world,” said one student. “We want Turkey to have more global say. Turkey at least will become a regional power in the next 10 years.”

Our tour of Turkey, sponsored by the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, officially ended on Wednesday. As I write this on Thursday, we're on a three-hour and 20 minute flight from Istanbul to London, where we will connect with a British Airways flight to Washington, D.C. I've been unable to post any of the more than 200 photos I took on this trip because I forgot to bring along my USB cord, but I hope to put up some of the images along with more narrative when I return to the U.S.

As we approach our departure to the U.S. tomorrow morning, I thought I'd review my notes for interesting tidbits and anecdotes.

-- You'll see Starbucks, Burger King, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets here, but they are not as prevalent as I've seen in other international locations. Krispy Kreme announced in July that it will open 25 retail locations during the next five years in Istanbul.

-- Things I've not seen here: Gatorade, bumper stickers, ice and ball caps.

-- Ankara is situated on a steep and rocky hill. Istanbul's hills make it seem like San Francisco on steroids.

-- The bright yellow taxicabs are remarkably clean and appear to be very recent models in most instances.

-- CNN and the BBC are readily available on the hotel televisions, but ESPN is a no-show. Thank heavens for the internet and my Slingbox connection, which allowed me to watch the second half of the Chicago Bears game on Sunday. Sadly, they lost.

-- The Turks I've encountered have been unfailingly polite, helpful and genuinely thankful that a group of journalists came here to learn more about their country and culture.

-- Traffic in Istanbul can be horrendous. One of our interpreters told of leaving his house at 5:30 a.m. in order to reach his office by 8 a.m. The evening commute can be just as time-consuming.

-- As we walked along a 900-year-old bridge spanning the Tigris River on the outskirts of Diyarbakir under a beautiful blue sky, a young interpreter who has lived her life thus far in that southeastern city confessed she had driven past the bridge many times but had never actually walked on it.

-- Our trip to Diyarbakir took us within an hour's drive of Syria and a two and a half hour drive to the Iraqi border.

-- The consensus of my group of traveling journalists (sponsored by the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies) is that the best dessert in all of Turkey is kadayif, a dough soaked in syrup or honey and covered with what appeared to be a fine shredded wheat.

We've been busy here in Turkey. Since I last wrote, we've finished our meetings and brief sightseeing in Ankara, visited the considerably less prosperous city of Diyarbakir in the southeastern part of the country, and returned to the Armada, our home base hotel in Istanbul. It's been an agenda-filled seven days.

Diyarbakir will never be confused with a tourist trap. The city was established in 2300 BC and has a current-day population of 1.4 million. But the annual income here is estimated at $1,313 per person, a reflection of the region's economic hardships. It's population is mostly Kurdish, an ethnic group that has long been ignored, mistreated and isolated. The city is grittier, the streets are rougher and the neighborhoods look much more distressed than any we've seen in Ankara or Istanbul. We encountered our first beggars here.

Our group of journalists, traveling here under sponsorship of the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, was taken by bus Sunday to the remote village of Yatir. Life in this farming village of about 100 families is grueling. They have electricity, but the power has been out for more than two months because they can't afford to pay their bill to light their mud and stone houses. A special irrigation project that brings in water from a tributary of the Tigris River is the sole sign of progress.

We encountered a tractor pulling a wagon of women at midday. Even though the sun was beating down and the air was lifeless, the majority of the 10 women wore clothes and scarves covering most of their bodies, customary for many Muslims in rural areas. They had been picking cotton since 6 a.m., work that will continue until the harvest ends in early November. The hardest workers can make up to $12 a day, but many receive about $6, based on the amount of cotton they pick.

The Diyarbakir region is home to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas. The PKK live in mobile camps that dot the nearby mountains. Yatir residents told us that the PKK was responsible for the burning of buildings and vehicles not far from them. The government won't assign public school teachers to the village because of the PKK's presence.

Saturday, at a free health clinic in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Diyarbakir, we met Hamide, a Kurdish woman in her 40s. Hamide, speaking through an interpreter, was struggling with a stomach ailment. She and her two sons migrated to Diyarbakir 15 years ago after government soldiers burned their village during the fierce fighting with PKK guerrillas in the 1990s. Her husband died shortly after the village was destroyed. The migration of villagers to the urban centers across Turkey since the 1990s has had a profound effect on the country. The population shift is similar to the effects of the rural to urban move in America.

Hamide's oldest, an 18-year-old, is attending university in Diyarbakir. Hamide does not work and lives in housing provided by friends. When I asked her what would make her life better, she replied with a simple answer: “A home.” Women like Hamide most often end up living with relatives when they can't support themselves.

Grinding unemployment or under employment is a major issue in Diyarbakir. More than 8 percent of families living there essentially have no income. Another 15 percent live on $200 to $320 per month. The unemployment rate among women is 90 percent.

A Sunday morning visit to the Baglar Women's Cooperative provided us a look at the many issues facing women, including extremely high illiteracy rates, lack of job skills and training, domestic violence and honour killings.

Our group returned to Istanbul on Sunday evening after a 90-minute flight from Diyarbakir. Monday was our first “free day,” so many of us took in the sights and the Grand Bazaar, a shopping venue like none other. After my shopping, I made my first-ever visit to a mosque. The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque, was built from 1609 to 1616. It may be the most striking manmade structure that I've ever seen.

On Tuesday, we're meeting with students at Sabanci University. We're told seating is limited and that there's been quite a competition among students eager to attend. Here's hoping we don't let them down.

Observations and anecdotes from my travels in Turkey thus far:

-- The food is excellent. The typical breakfast consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheese, bread and yogurt.

-- Riding in taxis and tour buses is an adventure. There are more than 2,000 traffic fatalities in Turkey each month, mostly because of poor roads and bad signage.

-- Turks like their tea. We've been served tea and small pastries at nearly every meeting or briefing.

-- I could be a Turk. My dark hair, eyes and mustache apparently leads many to think I'm Turkish and Muslim. A businessman approached me today and tried to ask for directions. Even one of our intepreters asked me on Sunday: “Are you Muslim?” And all this time I thought
I was of Scotch descent.

-- We don't drink the tap water. The water is chlorinated, but tourists are advised to buy bottled water."

-- A too-eager rug salesman at the Bazaar sensed my discomfort with his approach as he walked beside me. "Don't worry, I'm not a terrorist. I won't hurt you," he said. I assured him that I knew he meant no harm to me.

-- Ate dinner tonight at the Telve Cafe and Restaurant, which calls itself a Turkish Ravioli House. The ravioli was supposed to be filled with minced lamb, but I didn't detect any. The pasta was covered with yogurt and a stream of chili sauce. It was better than it sounds.

The story of modern Turkey can be reduced to one simple theme. It's all about Turkey's relationships with its neighbor.

Our group of traveling journalists met with a number of officials in Ankara on Thursday, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the vice chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), an opposition leader and energy experts.

Turkey's neighbors play critical roles, whether it be Russia, which supplies more than 75 percent of the country's natural gas, the volatile situations in Iran and Iraq, or the European nations who represent potential trade and commerce partners.

Erdogan said Russia sends more tourists to Turkey than anyone else. By the end of this year, the number of Russian visitors could hit four million, he said. Tourism continues to grow, a fact accentuated by the fact that even Iran is now sending one million tourists annually.

Turkey has been increasing its profile in the region, reaching out to key players and brokering negotiations in contentious and difficult situations. “We have a saying, if your neighbor's house is on fire and you don't help put it out, it eventually will catch up with your house,” said Egemen Bagis, a U.S.-educated member of Parliament and vice chairman of foreign affairs for the AK party.

Bagis reflected the sentiment of several we've talked to this week about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “Going into Iraq was a mistake,” Bagis said. Getting out of Iraq and leaving chaos behind could be even worse, he told our group, which is here for 10 days on a trip sponsored by the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The war in Iraq caused Turkish public opinion in favor of the U.S. to plummet and it's going to be difficult to restore U.S. credibility here, various officials said. Erdogan said the U.S. failed to present a convincing argument to the world that the war was necessary. Erdogan said, “No country with a Muslim population was a member of the coalition” put together by the U.S. He and others said the first major positive step by the Bush administration took place in November 2007 when President Bush declared its support for Turkish efforts to combat the impact of the PKK terrorists who are waging attacks on behalf of Kurds in northern Iraq and inside Turkey.

Onur Oymen, deputy chairman of he opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, said what has happened in Iraq “goes beyond collateral damage.” Asked how the U.S. might restore its image here, he said, “The handover of Iraq will result in a better image among Turks.”

Bagis urged the U.S. “to tell the world" that there are millions of Muslims living in the U.S. and they enjoy great freedoms. That, he said, would help the U.S image among the one billion Muslims worldwide.

Wednesday was another fascinating day in Turkey for a group of 16 journalists who are on a 10-day trip to three cities. We started our day in Istanbul and finished it in Ankara, a 45-minute flight away.

Most of us were quite surprised as we flew into the two-year-old Ankara airport. I say surprised because the brown, mountainous landscape that greeted us when we came down out of the clouds was quite different than the seaside view we had become accustomed to in Istanbul.

Our morning in Istanbul included a lengthy session with the Turkish prime minister's chief foreign policy adviser, followed by a panel of three journalists. We also heard from a professor and a former Wall Street Journal reporter who is now an analyst with a think tank called the International Crisis Group.

All of these panels and interviews have been arranged in advance by our trip sponsors, the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

It's difficult to grasp the state of newspapers in another country, especially when you can't read Turkish or speak the language. There are 23 national dailies here and it appears they are doing better financially than most U.S. newspapers these days. Yavuz Baydar, ombudsman and columnist for the Sabah newspaper, said the health of the Turkish newspaper industry “can't compare to the misery of American newspapers.” He said Turkish newspaper circulation is actually increasing.

Baydar and the other journalists describe a very contentious newspaper market here. Baydar said the prime minister, who we will meet on Thursday, is engaged in a “dog fight” with a powerful media conglomerate known as Dogan. The Dogan proprietor has vast business interests and has been ensnared in some huge controversies involving his holdings and his relationship with the government.

The panelists complained that Turkey does not have a “quality newspaper” like the New York Times, Washington Post or The Guardian. Nor does the country have television broadcasting similar to the quality of the BBC, NPR or PBS.

As in the rest of the world, internet growth in Turkey has skyrocketed. Baydar said there were 7.6 million internet users here in 2003. By 2007, that number had risen to 23 million.

Baydar and Zafer Atay of the Turkish Journalists Association lamented that large companies with huge non-media holdings have taken over many newspapers. “These proprietors have imposed self-censorship.” The owners' self-interests post conflicts and result in the self-censorship, much to the consternation of their newsrooms. Baydar said the new owner of his paper, Sabah, has as its CEO a son-in-law of the prime minister.

It's 11:30 p.m. Tuesday here in Istanbul as I begin writing this. My day began with a four-mile run at 7 a.m. today along the Sea of Marmara. I really should be trying to sleep, but our first full day here in this ancient city was so full of good experiences that I can't resist writing.

I'm traveling in Turkey on a 10-day IRP Gatekeeper Editors trip organized by the International Reporting Project (IRP) at The Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C. Fifteen other journalists are on this trip with me and we have a jam-packed schedule.

A trip to this part of the world is a stark reminder of just how young the United States is. We think 200 years of history on our shores is a long time, but it pales by comparison to the age of civilization in places such as Turkey.

Our first speaker, Ferhat Boratav, editor-in-chief of CNN Turk, gave us a 90-minute catch-up lesson on Turkish history. “In this part of the world, history is very much alive,” he said. Turkey is a secular country where Islam is the dominant religion, but it hasn't always been so. Turks were Buddhists and later Christians, long before they became Muslims.

In addition to history, Boratav covered current demographics and public opinion in Turkey. Here are some highlights:

In 1927, Turkey's population was 13.6 million. In 2007, it had reached 70.5 million and is expected to peak at 90 million by 2050. Sixty percent of the population is below 45 years of age and 50 percent is below 25.

Only 29 percent of Istanbul's present population was born in Istanbul.

Illiteracy is very high among older women. Twenty-nine percent of women over 44 are illiterate. “On average, it is not a well-educated population,” Boratav said.

In 1968, 186,000 Turks traveled abroad. In 2007, 8.2 million Turks traveled abroad.

Boratav said Turkish support for the U.S. has taken a severe hit because of the war in Iraq. The decline in favorable opinion didn't start until the U.S. became a neighbor by virtue of the war. “The U.S. became a destabilizing factor in 2003,” Boratav said.

The average Turk will always side with Turkish national interests over religion, Boratav said. “Turkey is unique among Muslim countries in putting the state ahead of religion. Turks were there before Islam,” he explained.

In a later installment, I'll share comments from our working lunch with an 81-year-old business magnate and leader of the Jewish community. His family, he noted, came from Spain to this region 520 years ago. Still, he said, in many ways he's considered an outsider.

We're off at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday for another full day. We leave at midday for Ankara, where we'll spend two days before going on to Diyarbakir in the Kurdish region.

I've just arrived here for a 10-day visit, courtesy of the International Reporting Project and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

I was awarded a travel fellowship along with 13 other journalists to come here to this gorgeous city by the sea to meet and interview government, military, media and academic officials, along with many others. We'll be spending time here in Istanbul as well as Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and Diyarbakir.

Getting here was an exhausting ordeal. We had a six and a half hour flight from D.C. to London, then another three hour flight to Istanbul. Add in customs, visas, long lines and general airport chaos to fill out the excursion.

Tuesday's agenda promises to be a good one. Among the highlights will be a working lunch with a leader of Turkey's Jewish community.

For now, I'm content to look out my hotel window and catch a glimpse of the Sea of Marmara. Sleep calls.

Let's face it. Monday was a pretty slow news day.

Even the tabloids had to stretch to make their newstand treats appealing to the average reader.

A reader wanted to know how the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers played the McCain speech on Friday, so here they are.

By the way, hundreds of front pages from around the U.S. and the world are available at the Newseum site, which is where I usually find the pages that I post here.

John McCain's speech Thursday night contained a number of memorable lines, but headline writers for many newspapers latched on to 'Fight with me' for the lead spot on Friday's front pages.

'Change is coming' was another popular choice among headline writers.

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Sarah Palin’s convention speech prompted big play in Thursday newspapers across the country. The ‘hockey mom’ phrase or references seemed to be pretty popular.

The Detroit News and the Free Press faced competing interests for front page consideration because their embattled mayor, who resigned Thursday morning, was hauled before a special hearing conducted by the governor on Wednesday. The News played the mayor big while the Free Press went with Palin.

Last week, the Spokesman-Review’s front-page gave big play to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. We’ll be doing likewise for John McCain’s speech in Friday’s newspaper.

Welcome to Tabloid Tuesday, our weekly look at what the tabloid dailies highlighted in their Tuesday editions.

We’ve strayed from the format a bid, adding front pages from Alaska, St. Paul and Minneapolis to show you the GOP convention coverage. And for extra measure, we've added the front page of the New Orleans paper to show its focus on Hurricane Gustav.

The death sentence for killer Joseph Duncan was front-page news for several Northwest newspapers on Thursday.

In addition to the Spokesman-Review, others offering front-page play included the Tacoma News Tribune, the Lewiston Tribune, the Idaho Statesman in Boise, the Forum in Fargo, N.D., and the Couer d’Alene Press. The Spokesman-Review appears to have been the only newspaper that covered the entire trial with its own staff members. The Couer d'Alene paper and others relied mostly on Associated Press coverage.

A fellow blogger found the verdict on the front pages of the Independent Record in Helena, as well as the Tri-City Herald and the Yakima Herald-Republic.

The Democratic convention, as expected, is getting big play across the front pages of America's newspapers this week.

The Denver papers, in particular, are going all out to cover the big event. John Temple, editor of the Rocky Mountain News, wrote earlier this week that he's got 150 staffers assigned to the convention. That's more people than many papers even have on staff these days.

The staffs of the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers are probaby paying close attention because it will be their turn next week when the Republican convention takes over their metropolis.

All of this begs the question, of course. Are reporters and editors paying too much attention to conventions that are so carefully scripted and staged?

The Olympic Games in Beijing, which have clearly become one of the highlights of the summer for viewers, sports fans and even non-sports folks, are getting massive coverage in America’s newspapers.

A review of Thursday’s front pages shows a clear split on how the stories are being played. East Coast papers that featured the Olympics on the cover focused on the incredible sprinter, Usain Bolt, while the West Coast papers that had the games on the cover went the volleyball route with photos of the bikini-clad Americans.

Once in a great while, the New York tabloids end up with the same clever headline on the front page.

Seems to us that readers ought to get a discount on those days.

Tabloid Tuesday is back. Our weekly look at the bold, often whacky tabloid newspaper covers found few similarities in photo or story choices this time around.

Those of us who are Chicago Bears fans especially liked the cover of Red Eye, the daily tab published by the Chicago Tribune.

The Seattle newspapers plan to raise their weekday price for single copies from 50 cents to 75 cents.

The Seattle Times story about the increase includes the following excerpt, which contains a humbling quote:

“At the City Market on Bellevue Avenue in Capitol Hill, manager Cain Moorehead said he had also received the memo notifying him of the price increase. The memo, dated Monday, said the new price included every day but Sunday.

“He doubted the price increase would affect his sales, which he said he does not track.

“ ‘We just put them out there," he said. "It's just newspapers.’ "

Ouch.

One of the true pleasures for newspaper editors is to watch the growth and development of our interns.

Four of last summer's interns, Jessica Meyers, Melissa Pamer, Sara Mahoney and Elida Perez, are doing well again this summer.

Jessica is interning at the Dallas Morning News, where she had a front-page story in Monday's paper about Texans getting bleary-eyed while watching so much of the Olympics on television.

Melissa is a full-time reporter at the Daily Breeze in Torrance, CA, where she had a front-page story in Monday's paper about a conflict among bicylists and motorists.

Elida is interning at the Statesman Journal in Salem. She wrote a timely piece earlier this month about how discount and consignment stores are seeing an upswing in customers who are dealing with tough economic times.

Sara was a design intern with the Orlando Sentinel this summer and recently accepted a full-time job with the Chicago Tribune. She'll be assigned to The Mash, a high school newspaper being launched this fall by the Trib.

All four of our former interns are very talented, energetic and personable. They represent an exciting new generation of journalists who are helping newspapers adjust to new market and industry challenges. We're very proud of them and look forward to following their careers from afar.

The Joseph Duncan trial continues to receive prominent newspaper coverage.

The Spokesman-Review played its staff-written story as its front-page lead on Friday. The Lewiston Tribune and the Coeur d'Alene Press used Associated Press coverage on their front pages.

Papers in other cities that have some connection to Duncan’s criminal past are relying on AP coverage, but most of it is landing inside the paper. Those papers include the Tacoma News Tribune and the Forum in Fargo, North Dakota. The Seattle Times and Boise’s Idaho Statesman are using AP coverage as well.

The Statesman had a staff reporter covering the opening arguments, but have since relied on AP. It appears the S-R's Betsy Russell may be the only newspaper reporter covering the trial in its entirety. Others are likely to pay more attention to closing arguments and the verdict.

The S-R's night cops reporter, Meghann Cuniff, has been in Boise most of the week, too, filing regularly via Twitter, the text messaging system. She's returning to Spokane this evening, but we expect to be sending her back to Boise as developments warrant them.

Tabloid Tuesday, our weekly look at interesting, compelling or whacky front pages of U.S. tabloid newspapers, turns serious today. The Russian attack on Georgia has dominated the international news headlines for several days.

We offer three tabloid covers today in addition to the Moscow edition of Pravda. All of these covers and hundreds more can be found on the Newseum site.

Mayors often find themselves in hot water. It seems the conditions for hizzoner in Detroit reached a boiling point this week with a one-night stay in a local jail.

Both Detroit newspapers gave dramatic play to the development on their Friday front pages.

Images courtesy of the Newseum website.

If you ask most sports editors in America, they probably would tell you they hate having the Olympics in Asia. Why? The time difference.

As I write this about 11 a.m. on Friday, it’s almost 2 a.m. Saturday in Beijing, site of this year’s Olympic extravaganza. That means that by the time we publish photos and results in Saturday’s paper, it’s really old news. But it is what it is and we can’t change the 15-hour time difference.
Afternoon papers actually have a better shot at presenting more timely information for this year’s events, but there aren’t that many PM papers around anymore. I could only find one today, my hometown paper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, really took advantage of its publishing cycle to offer photos and coverage from the opening ceremonies. You’ll find a couple of China-based front pages here as well. Front pages are courtesy of the Newseum site.

Should we put a colorful photo of the opening pageantry on our front page for Saturday?
And what’s the Vegas betting line on the badminton competition?

OK, the Brett Favre saga is worth one more day of front-page reviews. This will be the end of it, we promise.

The Green Bay paper has the boldest look on its cover with the black background. The understated approach of the New York Post is a bit surprising, while the New York Daily News resorted to the green theme, the Jets team color.

I should note, as usual, these pages are picked up from the Newseum website, where you can view the front pages of hundreds of newspapers around the world every day.

The summer-long drama involving football star Brett Favre and his desire to play again in the NFL would appear to be nearing a conclusion. But, as a famous baseball philosopher once said, “it ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”

Nevertheless, the Favre saga continues to be front-page news in Wisconsin and even Florida, where it’s rumored that Favre may play next.