a city reader

I’ve been in a newspaper-loving trance for a few weeks now since I resumed getting The New York Times delivered after some months off. I’m not sure why I stopped then. I think it was to be, in my mind, right on top of things. There was so much news, so much serious stuff going on. I felt like I had to be sitting in front of my computer screen all day. I didn’t watch TV. Oh maybe an hour at night streaming on my computer. I don’t have a TV. I listened to NPR and sports talk, but that was off to the side, coming in my right ear. Right in front of me was the screen. I read columnists mostly. In the Times, in the Washington Post, in The Guardian. The LA Times sometimes too. I probably read them fast. There were so many. I had to ingest so much. And there was Facebook too. Lots of stuff to read fast on there too. Getting the newspaper dropped outside my door by 6:00 every morning again gets me up. Not the sound of it hitting the floor. But the early quiet anticipation of opening the door and bending down to pick it up. It feels like an old habit of 60+ years, and it seems new again. Maybe I’m just grateful that they’re still putting out a great thing like the Times when so much is closed down. I went looking for a quote tonight about newspapers. I found this one by Pete Hamill:

‘Quite simply, I love newspapers and the men and women who make them. Newspapers have given me a full, rich life. They have provided me with a ringside seat at some of the most extraordinary events in my time on the planet. They have been my university. They have helped feed, house and educate my children. I want them to go on and on and on.’
                                 ― from News Is a Verb