Habits

I woke up today and learned that the morning paper in nearby Fort Wayne, Indiana will be discontinuing its Sunday edition to be replaced by a “weekend edition” that will come out on Saturdays.

I’ve been something of a newspaper nerd my whole life. Growing up near Boston, one of my guilty pleasures was to sneak off to Cambridge’s Harvard Square and visit the newsstands there that carried newspapers from all over the world. Those places then felt like an (almost) Narnia-like doorway to the larger universe.

For me this became something of a secularized ritual. There’s something about the experience of the smell of newsprint (later accompanied by coffee and—back then—a cigarette)that made for an enjoyable quiet few minutes.

To this day, a close friend, who is a little older than I am, will sometimes ask, “You still read newspapers?” Old habits are hard to break.

As a teenager riding the subway in Boston, I recall that people of all economic strata would often have their noses in one of the cities several newspaper options. Back then—it seems-people were more able to read something they didn’t necessarily agree with without their heads exploding.

Sure, you can get lots of news online. I do these days. But the experience feels comparatively anodyne. Not the same.

These days I get a little tired of reminding myself that I need to adapt for a while longer. Sunday mornings will be adjusted.

Enjoy your weekend.