The painful countdown continues at Plain Dealer

Consider this the painfully lost week end for the Plain Dealer staff.  The news people are awaiting deadly verdicts, such as, "Will I have a job a week from now."  Nobody knows as the paper moves closer to Aug. 3, the day when it will be shrunk to three weekday home deliveries plus a "bonus" delivery on Saturday to accompany the Wednesday,  Friday and Sunday  schedule.  Why is it a bonus rather than a four-days-a week schedule?  Beats me.  Those clever consultants think of everything.  PD Guild president Harlan Spector told me at  5 p.m. Thursday, he still had a job.  But he, like all of the others, are in a state suspended animation.  "The company hasn't told us anything," he said.  But we expect it to happen next week."