I miss the Sunday paper.
I read the paper online, these days, and we don’t have the newspaper delivered any more, and I miss it. I miss it enough that I’m considering signing up for the weekend edition of the New York Times, because I love the book review and theatre sections, despite the fact that we leave nowhere near New York.
Granted, the Sunday Times wouldn’t come with Kohls coupons, or, in fact, any local information, but I love the way the paper feels so much, I don’t think I’d care. I mean, I’d still have the crossword puzzle, right?
Crossword puzzles were meant to be done with pen or pencil on a table in a cafe, or in the living room by a fire, not on the computer. I know there are sites that allow digital crosswords, but the fun in them comes from not being plugged in. From having to rely on your own brain, and using them as a means of engaging strangers in conversation. “Excuse me,” you say to someone who has an interesting hat – a black bowler, perhaps, that reminds you of your Uncle Phil, who really wasn’t a blood relative, but he dated your Aunt Margie for so long he may as well have been. “Can you give me a five-letter word that means ‘comprehensible’?”
And either not-Uncle Phil will shakes his head apologetically, and go along with his own plans, or he’ll smile and suggect, “Lucid.”
And you’ll sip your coffee until it’s gone, even though there are biscotti crumbs in the bottom, and when you get home, you won’t care that your hands smell of newsprint.
Here we have a terrible free paper that is a spin-off of the real paper. I complain about it all the time — the writers try to be snarky and overly opinionated about everything, and the editing is atrocious … but the truth is, I need that paper, 5 days a week, to get me through my work. I can take a minute to read it or work the crossword (they use the LA Times crossword, which equally sucks) but it’s still a paper and that helps.
Plus, I take a red pen to it when I get really annoyed.
Michele sent me!
Oh yes, I do so agree. I grew up loveing newspapers, and one of my favorite games as a child was to create my own-which I suppos I continue to do with my blog(s). I like the smooth, inky paper, like folding it over and into sections to reveal just the article I want to read, like cutting things out and sticking them into file folders or books. And most of all, like scribbling the answers into the puzzle with a real pencil (I’m too timid to use a pen).
The writing in our local papers is abysmal. I’ve taken the Sunday Times at different points in my life. Perhaps this might be another good one to do so.
My goodness, forgive all the typos in my comment! That’s what happens when I don’t have my glasses on.