Airing dirty laundry

Those who spent the summer feeling like their voyeuristic thirsts for stories about a mother’s battles with dirty laundry were not satiated, fear not. Barbara Lombardo is back on the job.

Yes folks, it seems as though The Saratogian’s managing editor is penning her usual Saturday morning prattle on the paper’s life section again, after taking a prolonged and pronounced hiatus over the summer. And for those used to her column, she didn’t disappoint this weekend, providing readers with detailed accounts of the soiled cloths left strewn behind by her prodigious college-aged son, down to the last pair of boxers.

Laundry seems to be an integral part of the Chez Lombardo, as one could gather from her column. So far this year, it’s been a topic in three of her 27 rants this year. Although it should be noted that one of those times can be credited to her son, who made a brief column appearance in May.

Still, Lombardo is hovering around the 10 percent mark, when looking at the average column space she uses per year to carp about the kids and their slovenliness. It’s a pity this paid space couldn’t be used for better pursuits, such as chronicling a piece of life that’s somewhat interesting, rather than simply airing the fam’s dirty laundry.

Granted, the Life section of the newspaper is meant to portray a sense of the community’s verve. And it could be argued that there are plenty of working mothers in Saratoga that regularly pickup after their teenaged and young adult progeny. But it’s rather unlikely that any of them want to take a break from cleaning only to read a bland and colorless diatribe about someone else’s battles with the washing machine.

Of course, when the Lombardo pen gets fired up in other areas of the paper, there can sometimes be some laughable consequences. Take for instance a glowing editorial congratulating the now-infamous investigators who plucked John Karr from Thailand. She might want to pull that one off the Web site and stick to her adventures with Tide.