WOOD WAR XXXIX

Both tabs give a half-page to Coretta Scott King's memorial, each in its house style. The News presents a full panorama of the assembled presidents and first ladies, under a small-caps headline--dignified, neatly composed, and indecipherable from more than two feet away. The Post chops the same visual idea to its essence--George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Bill Clinton--and pops out a snappier headline, in a more readable font.

But on its lower half, the Post gets too brisk for its own good, compressing its local-news story to an indecipherable squib. The news is that a teenager phoned LGA with a bomb threat because she was running late for her flight. The Post burns two of its eight words--"LOVE" and "Beau"--on the tangential point that she was flying off to chase around after her boyfriend. It's not just in the dictionary where WHAT comes before WHY, fellas!

"PERV ATTACKS MED STUDENT," on the other hand, couldn't be any clearer.

Overall standings: Daily News 18, New York Post 21