A forbidden thought occurred to me this morning over coffee. I looked at the pile made by a week's worth of newspapers; it was over 10" high. Maybe I should cut back from two to one paper a day. Maybe none. Think of the time I'd have for the Internet. Or taking pictures. Really learning PhotoShop. Reading science fiction and even mysteries. Walking and exploring. Gardening.
The thought made me cringe with guilt. For you see, I began my journalism career as a copyboy on the old
Chicago Sun. In my world, news is a
duty that has always equaled ink on newsprint. Back when most folk shifted their allegiance to the ubiquitous tube, I stayed with print. Despite my emphasis on graphics on this blog, I remain convinced that the importance of real news and events can't be determined by how exciting the pictures are. Nor by how much talking heads shout at each other. On the other hand, the older I get, the more today's news resembles yesterday's.
But there's that admonition from my 103 year old mother: always do the puzzles -- they'll keep your mind working. Just like this year's crop of researchers have discovered (there's nothing like proving the obvious!) It's actually the puzzles that are taking all the time I spend with the paper. And, of course, those devious feature editors added Sudoku just to further entice me.
So I can't figure out which paper to cut off. The big state daily from Phoenix has the best puzzles; the local
Courier offers the local coverage I need as I work on my various blog posts. Maybe I might compromise and settle on weekends only for the
Republic. I'm most likely to wimp out and do nothing, as I have done with the cable TV.
A forbidden thought occurred to me this morning over coffee. I looked at the pile made by a week's worth of newspapers; it was over 10" high. Maybe I should cut back from two to one paper a day. Maybe none. Think of the time I'd have for the Internet. Or taking pictures. Really learning PhotoShop. Reading science fiction and even mysteries. Walking and exploring. Gardening.
The thought made me cringe with guilt. For you see, I began my journalism career as a copyboy on the old Chicago Sun. In my world, news is a duty that has always equaled ink on newsprint. Back when most folk shifted their allegiance to the ubiquitous tube, I stayed with print. Despite my emphasis on graphics on this blog, I remain convinced that the importance of real news and events can't be determined by how exciting the pictures are. Nor by how much talking heads shout at each other. On the other hand, the older I get, the more today's news resembles yesterday's.
But there's that admonition from my 103 year old mother: always do the puzzles -- they'll keep your mind working. Just like this year's crop of researchers have discovered (there's nothing like proving the obvious!) It's actually the puzzles that are taking all the time I spend with the paper. And, of course, those devious feature editors added Sudoku just to further entice me.
So I can't figure out which paper to cut off. The big state daily from Phoenix has the best puzzles; the local Courier offers the local coverage I need as I work on my various blog posts. Maybe I might compromise and settle on weekends only for the Republic. I'm most likely to wimp out and do nothing, as I have done with the cable TV.
The paper I read here in Germany is the Stars & Stripes that I buy on base. It cost 50 cents. I can go on line and download it free, which I do ocassionally, but I prefer to have the hard copy in my hands.
ReplyDeleteThere's something so very substantive about hard copy. Anything which requires a device to reproduce and then view (or listen to) is a chancey method of saving history, in my books. If it's got to be done in"1's" & "0's", they should be pecked into a basaltic cliff like the other really enduring news from the past.
ReplyDeleteWell, you could buy one crossword book or magazine a week...and read your 'papers' on the internet. I only buy the weekend papers...Saturday and Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI love my weekend papers...but I just don't seem to get the time for them during the week....I'm always reading something, somewhere, though!
But I have to agree, 'hard copy' is good.
One thing I could do is limit my crosswords to the more difficult weekend puzzles. I've already succumbed to the published sudoku books, which doesn't help my time schedule!
ReplyDeleteIt's the radio and jigsaws for me. One to provide the news, the other to keep my brain alive. I hope.
ReplyDeleteI catch radio news on NPR, tho I don't always agree with their particular bias. On the other hand, it's one of the very few broadcast sources that's not just sound or picture bites.
ReplyDelete