Sunday Paper

For years, I got two papers on Sunday -- the New York Times and the Washington Post. I liked to say that I got both so as to get different points of view, but the truth is that I got the Times because I grew up reading it, and always regarded it as the only real paper, and the Post because it had comics (which I could get by buying the less-expensive local paper, aka The Harrisburg FishWrap; I still think of it that way even as I find, to my surprise, that it has things that are of interest to me. Mostly, because so much of it is still crap. Perhaps as I age, I'll feel differently about those articles about local flea markets and whats playing at the movies.)

But as time went on, I stopped getting them both because I was spending about ten dollars a week on them, and I didn't want to spend that much. So, I dropped the Times (which was less expensive) and kept the Post (which had the comics). And then last year I subscribed to a service to get the digital version of the Post, and stopped getting the physical paper. It turned out to be great for when I wanted to do the crossword, and pretty awful when it came to reading it with Sunday brunch. A couple of months ago, the digital subscription expired, and I didn't even notice.

But today, for some reason, I picked up the Sunday Post. And was dismayed to find out how much crap they had. Articles about Michele Bachman, on the front page. Articles about local government doing things that are bad, or could be bad, or might be bad if something else happens, but they don't know. Articles about how the government is broke. And how the debt fiasco is affecting my net worth. And, of course, in the magazine sections, ads for telephones that are just telephones (aimed at the doddering elderly, which I am not, dagnabbit!) and wonderful new hemorrhoid medicines, and how actors from iCarly are celebrating a life of service.

Oh yeah. I don't miss reading those papers at all.