I stopped reading the newspaper about 12 years ago, maybe longer. It wasn’t a determination that they were not worth it. My local came in the morning, I left for work before I could read it, and by time I got home it wasn’t of value. Jeff read it every day. When he died, I cancelled the subscription.
Now, that local paper isn’t available, and, with all my projects, I miss it. What for? I needed to paint something, and I didn’t have the newspaper to put under it. There is orange on the patio where I over sprayed. I wanted to wrap something up to put it in the garbage. No newspaper. What do they wrap fish in these days? Probably plastic bags. Oops! More plastic in the world.
The latest is my impending haircut. Not really a cut, but a trim. After watching five different YouTube videos, purchasing some niceish hair-cutting shears, and getting up the nerve, I realized that the ¼ inch or so I am going to trim will result in icky small hairs everywhere. In the “old days,” I would put newspaper on the floor and in the sink so I could get close to the mirror and capture the trimmings. So much nicer than a towel because you fold it up and dump in the garbage. Hairs stick in the fabric of the towel.
There is some newsprint in my utility closet. It’s a box of those sheets of paper used for packing. Somehow, doesn’t work the same way. It doesn’t have nice pre-creased folds to capture the bits. It’s somehow slick and a bit glossy. It will have to do. I’ll crumple it a bit and grumble a bit too, about being old, that sometimes change is inevitable, but there are always unintended consequences. What goes in the bottom of the birdcage? Do people still keep birds?
I used to use newspaper to clean my windows. Hah! Now I just don’t clean my windows. Problem solved. We would save up stacks of papers and use as a weed barrier in the garden or a wrap for stored tomatoes. I don’t miss that. They got slimy and gloppy in the garden and the weeds just grew through or on top of it. Strong weeds in this here area. Stored tomatoes usually just turned to stored mold. Papier mâché, packing, book covers (that was awful because it would transfer ink to hands and clothes), and a list of dealing with messy things that are too many to mention.
So, I miss newspapers. And I miss writing that was crafted, thoughtful and, most of all, edited. The editing got sloppier as the editors retired or moved away from a dying industry, but sloppy is so much better than no editing. What was that saying? “All the news that’s fit to print?” The Internet tells me that originated October 25, 1896 from Adolph Simon Ochs who led the New York Times out of yellow journalism and into a premier news source. The Encyclopedia Britannica (online) says that he worked hard to meet a standard of “comprehensive and trustworthy news gathering.”
What color would we call reporting today? Green with envy – everyone trying to outdo, out shock, and beat others for the scoop and print sorry nonsense in the doing?
Well, Mr. Och’s slogan is no longer leading the way. Today, it’s all the news we can type or speak. Nothing about being fit, and no filters or editors. I’m not going to subscribe to the papers, physical or digital, but I do miss that day-old newsprint for projects. Hmm, I think at least one of my book clubmates gets a real paper…
Oh well, we’ll see if I really get up the nerve to trim my hair anyway. If not, who needs a newspaper?
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