Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Extra, Extra. Read All About It.

Oh my God. A train with passenger cars just went by. With lights on in the windowed compartments. I don't think I've ever, in my five and a half years here, seen passenger cars go by. And now, same train- flats of trucks and truck containers are slowly making their way past my house. Strange to see vehicles meant for the road slip through my back woods on rails.
When people see how close the tracks are behind my house, they ask me how often the train goes by and I can't even tell them. I don't know if one seldom does or if I'm just so used to it that it doesn't even register any more. I do know that after a big storm the silence of no train traffic at all makes me realize that more trains go by than I probably realize.

I didn't mean to write about trains this morning. I meant to write about newspapers but they are related. Both are part of our history, and still part of our present, even if we do think of them as anachronisms. I live within yards of a train track, I still get a newspaper daily. The train still provides good value for transportation dollars. I am sure of that. But newspapers? Do they still serve us?

Our local newspaper, The Tallahassee Democrat, has gotten so small and so, well, ridiculous, that every day I wonder why I bother to pay for it, why I bother to read it. It's mostly Tallahassee news and the only thing that keeps getting bigger about it is the Zing! column which is where anonymous asshats can submit witty little bon mots such as this one in today's paper:

I went to the Post Office today for some 98-cent international stamps. They were sold out. I hope when I need a stent, Obamacare isn't sold out.

Pithy, eh? And hardly what you'd call news.

Mostly what I read in the paper are editorials, which is funny, because what's a blog but a personal editorial column? For me, anyway. Leonard Pitts, Jr. and Garrison Keillor are my favorites. We have some local columnists who aren't bad. But the other stuff? I don't give a good goddam if the NCAA turns over documents about FSU or not. I suppose if I followed sports I would and actually, the sports section seems to be holding its own. I say seems to be because I don't read it.
The comics seem pretty stupid to me these days and Ann Landers is dead.



I'm sorry- Annie's Mailbox is not Ann Landers. She talked about masturbation and homosexuality when no one else did. In a reasonable and unhysterical way. She was a jewel, that old broad. She was a big part of my education about life because I was allowed to read the newspaper as soon as I could, well, read. I never could get my hands on enough reading material and so I just grabbed up anything with print on it and thankfully, my mother allowed me to do that.

It's funny. The first newspaper I remember reading was the Miami Herald, which my grandfather got daily in a box across the street from his house in Roseland, Florida which was also yards away from the railroad track. In fact, a trestle bridge built by Henry Flagler crossed the river which his house was built on. It's still there, that bridge, and it looks the same and the train still crosses it. Here's a picture I took of it in 2006:


And so the train and the newspaper are linked in my mind from an early age.

I started out reading the comics, as most children do. Or did. This was back in the DAY, people. There were comics which were not unlike soap operas, Mary Worth,


and that crazy empty-nickel eyed girl Little Orphan Annie and her equally empty-eyed dog.


They quite frankly scared me.

My favorite was Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter, because she had an exciting life and traveled all over the world to get stories and had a lover with an eye patch who was always searching for the mysterious and legendary black orchid.

But even when I was very young, it was the columnists I loved. I remember distinctly reading the columns of a man whose name I cannot remember, no matter how hard I try. I'm sure his work was not worthy of a Pulitzer and he wrote about things like hangnails but I loved it. Jack Somebody, his name was.

I've always gotten the newspaper. I read about John Lennon's death in the newspaper. I've done thousands of crosswords, lined hundreds of bird cages, read millions of words in newspapers. My ultimate weekend treat is to buy a copy of the NY Times, shelling over my five or six bucks for a week's worth of print to consume at my leisure.

And now I'm wondering- is it time to let my subscription go? But part of me, despite my frustration with the "news" I get from the paper, would feel so guilty if I quit getting the paper. Getting the paper is what grown-ups DO. It's what informed citizens do. It's what intelligent people do.
Or it used to be, anyway.
Now people watch the news on TV. You can't go into a restaurant, doctor's office or airport waiting area without being bombarded by CNN or Fox. And I'd hardly call Fox News news. I get news from NPR and the Huffington Post which is, admittedly, pretty left-leaning. Not NPR. The Huffington Post. I trust NPR more than any other source and that's just the truth.
But let's face it- by the time I get the news in the newspaper, I've heard it or read it already.
So does it still make any logical sense to get it?
I don't know.
Yesterday I read in the Democrat that one of my old FSU biology professors had died. I wouldn't have gotten that information on NPR. But I don't plan on going to the funeral. I didn't really know him although he was certainly one of those teachers you don't forget.
A few weeks ago there was an article about a house that I lived in briefly when I first moved to Tallahassee which has some history to it and which has been moved from where it was when I lived there and which is going to be restored. That was interesting and the only place I would have discovered the story was in the paper. I still get information that I wouldn't get anywhere else in the local paper. I do.
And so it does still have some value to me, I suppose.

Trains and newspapers are connected in more ways than just my own personal experience. It was the railways that made this country accessible and it was the newspapers which made it civilized. The newspaper used to be the only way to get information, just as the railways were the only way to travel, to ship things, to cross this country from one side to the other, the way for the tracks dynamited through mountains, the trestles for them spanning the rivers. And reporters used to be sent far and wide throughout the world to gather information, to bring it back, to write it up and then sent out into the world for people to read, to be informed. You weren't really married if your wedding announcement wasn't in the paper. You weren't really dead if your obit wasn't printed there.

But now there's such a myriad of ways to get information out. And here I sit, contributing to the internet, not really news, but a column of sorts.

It's sad to me to see the great newspapers and the small ones too, fail and fall. I hate it. Reporters used to be something. Journalists were too. There was a real value in what they did, there was respect for what they did. They were intrepid, they were honest, they got the story and they gave it to the world's readers.

Could there ever be a Brenda Starr, Girl Blogger? Sure, but she wouldn't be as glamorous or wear the clothes or travel to the places that Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter did. Nah, Brenda Starr, Girl Blogger sits in her PJ's and travels the world via the internet, Tweets, and hell, I don't even know. She doesn't care about black orchids. She doesn't have a mysterious, handsome man with an eye patch. She doesn't even have that gorgeous red hair and she certainly doesn't have stars in her eyes. She's probably not even brushed her hair today and she's wearing glasses.

Sad. And I guess until the day of the newspaper with its tactile pleasure, it's print and fonts and pictures and fold-and-carryablity are entirely gone, I'll still subscribe. I may bitch about it and call it the Tallahassee Pamphlet and I may bemoan the fact that I read blogs every day which are of higher quality than the columns in that paper but dammit, I'm an adult, I'm intelligent. I am civilized. I need to get the paper. And besides, what do people spread under the pumpkin when they carve it if they don't get the paper? What do they start their fires with? You can check the game scores online and you can check the movie schedule online but by god, you cannot wrap a fish in an iPhone.

No. I'll keep going out to get my paper, dressed like a homeless person, pretending that no one can see me if I don't look at them, and then bring it in to sit and read on my back porch and occasionally, a train will go by while I'm reading, picking out the tidbits that I wouldn't find anywhere else, the train carrying people who look out their windows to see this old house, these trees, my chickens and garden and they must wonder what kind of a person lives in such a place?

The kind of person who still reads a newspaper, I guess. Who fell in love with the printed word a million years ago, who perhaps dreamed a little bit of growing up to be Jack Somebody who could get paid to entertain people writing about such prosaic things as hangnails. Who harbored a desire to grow up to be Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter, a pad and pen always at the ready, a mysterious man with an eye patch ready to take her in his arms, a black orchid, waiting to be found somewhere in the world and then written about for the entire world to be awed by.

The train still goes by. The paper still gets delivered. The world still turns in the same old way, even as it changes with the speed of light into a future we can't even imagine. What will they think of trains when we can teletransport huge cargo containers of goods and ourselves too with a tiny transmitter device? What will they think of newspapers when we have chips in our heads that give us every bit of information in the world to ponder?

I don't know and I doubt I'll be around to know.

In the meantime, here I am. On my back porch. With the newspaper spread around me, even as I type on this computer, one foot in one century, another foot in this one. At the moment, the stretch still feels comfortable. Mostly. A train will probably come by in awhile.

And now I'll sign off, Mary Moon, Woman Blogger, with the regular daily edition of the news of her heart, her life, her tiny piece of this big world linked to it with words transmitted by magic, as well as rails which pass by her house, both carrying things from one place to another, from Jacksonville to Jackson, Wyoming. From Lloyd to Lisbon.

Kinda cool, don't you think?
I do. And I'm not giving up the newspaper yet. It may be an anachronism but so am I.

So am I.

25 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. A guy I was seeing laughed at me one time and said, "You and my parents are the only people in the world still getting the newspaper." I dumped his sorry ass.

    Every time they hike up the price, I toy with stopping my subscription. Every time it's not delivered, every time I don't have time to read it.

    But. So much local news is found only in the Times-Picayune. I learn so much and feel like an adult.

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  3. So Harley was RIGHT!!! He was going on and on about an Amtrack that had gone by and when I went to look, all i could see were what looked like Mac trucks of flat cars! Weird!!! I wonder if that was a fluke or if the Amtrack is now running from Florida again.

    marc discovered that after Katrina, they stopped running from here. So, wow!

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  4. The idea of print media disappearing makes me really sad. Really really sad.

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  5. I agree, the local stuff around here would never make it onto TV news. I live in a town of less than 800, and frankly, if you're not from here, you don't give a shit about the card party hosted at so-and-so's house last Saturday. But if you ARE from here, that's newsworthy stuff and you want to know about it.

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  6. I used to love the train when I was a kid. My sister and I would ride the train from Jacksonville to Atlanta by ourselves to visit my grandfather. Maybe that train you saw means they have started passenger service up again around here. I hope so!

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  7. I think the local newspaper is worth getting precisely because it tells you stuff the internet doesn't throw at you. Our local one is free, though, and I just can't be bothered to comb through it to find the one gem I might find interesting.

    I always read a newspaper for a whole week, too. I think the NYTimes would last me a month.

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  8. The train still runs from Jax north, but the service across from there to New Orleans was shut down after Katrina. Amtrak is in the process of restoring that service as we speak - I've been following the news. Maybe you saw some sort of test run?

    As to the newspaper, well, I live and breathe hard copy publication, but I still wouldn't get the Democrat if you paid me. (That's a lie, I totally would if someone paid me to.)

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  9. The entire act of buying and then reading a newspaper has changed meaning and purpose.

    It's not really for the news, and most probably not even for the opinion any more. I think buying the paper and reading it nowadays says you have 15 minutes in your day for yourself and the rest of the world can bugger off.

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  10. I loved reading Ann Landers as a kid. She was a snarky bitch in her day.

    I don't trust the New York Times. There are only a very few things I know a lot about, and I know that those things have been inaccurately represented in the Times. So for sure I can't trust what they say on topics I know nothing about. Which is most things.

    These days I feel like there is more truth in the blogs than truth in the news.

    FYI-I'm changing my header and replacing it with a Ms. Moon quote.

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  11. Great post. You ARE writing a coluum and you are sort of like Brenda Starr. You really should be in a hard copy place, like a paper or magazine. You would be a huge hit. I miss the paper. When I lived in Rhode Island I loved reading it. You're right, it felt grown up to me, even if i did really only read the fun parts. I liked the feel and the ritual. I looked into getting the local paper when I moved to CT, but it's lousy and I am not invested in CT. I work in RI and we get the Providence Journal at work and sometimes I take it to lunch but it's not the same as having it delivered to home. I love how you wrote about not looking at people, dressed like a homeless person when you go to get the paper. All your details are so fabulous. Your connections too, trains and papers. perfect. You are a writer extraordinaire.
    I would gladly buy whatever paper or mag published you.
    PS yes, grow gourds next year. They make one happy and the hard shelled ones you can dry. I make birdhouses out of mine. Really fun!

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  12. Nola- But the Times Picayune is a GOOD paper, not to be confused with the Tallahassee Democrat. I mean, we have some very talented people who write on their staff and it's NOT THEIR FAULT, but overall- crap. But still, I must read it.
    And good judgment call on dumb-ass boy.

    Ms. Fleur- Yep. The boy was right. He's so smart. Now if he tells you he's seen a dinosaur in the back yard- notify me immediately. Okay? Thanks.

    Aunt Becky- No Esquire magazine? No Vanity Fair? No Oxford American? No Vogue? NO WAY!

    Rachel- It would be better if our local paper ONLY concerned itself with such things but no, they still pretend to be a newspaper worthy of being THE ONLY newspaper in the Capitol City of Florida. Jeez.

    Lois- I hope so too.
    Hey! How'd it go today?

    Mwa- Okay, well, sometimes the NYT does last me a month.

    DTG- Well, Harley confirmed it was Amtrak so there you go. He may only be not-quite-four but I would not argue with him on train-matters.
    And yes, of course you'd get the paper if someone paid you. Just to do the crossword if nothing else.

    Daddy X- You are completely correct about that.

    Michelle- Everything I know anything about which has been reported in ANY paper has always gotten it wrong. So- there you go. I do love the marriage announcements in the Times. The way they tell lots of cool details. Awesome. Plus, they do the gay couples, too, which just delights and satisfies me. SO civilized. And the magazine section. And the book review. Well- you know.
    And I am so honored you used a quote of mine. And such a good one, too!

    Bethany- Thank-you. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. You are so sweet. And dammit, I AM going to grow gourds.

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  13. What a timely and lovely post. We're debating what to do with our newspaper subscription here as well. Hubby reads sports and business, I read local news, editorials, obits and do the crossword. They are piling up, and sadly increasingly irrelevent. You're right, little happens I don't learn from the internet and its old news by the time its printed. We're thinking about weaning, getting W,F and Sunday, which lets me keep my coupons and food section and the weekend stuff.
    Most of the editorials or commentary from regular folk make me shake my head in despair or disgust, as everyone has a blatant point of view these days, and so polarized. My word of the day today is Manichean, which I'd never heard, which means a dualistic view of the world, divided into good/evil, light/dark, with no shades of gray.
    I want my news to tell me about the gray, without bias or ulterior motive, or worst of all, stupidity.
    Honestly, the newspaper is not giving me that, but at least there is a crossword puzzle!

    I live 2 miles from the railroad tracks and whistles are the soundtrack to our lives - it's always cars, coal, chemicals or cattle moving, and I'd be impressed to see a real travel car using the rails. That sounds like a lovely adventure!
    I'd rather read your news than any that gets delivered to my door, so glad I found the link to your door.

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  14. I stopped my newspaper subscription when they couldn't get my 'vacation stop' right and kept delivering the paper - and billing me for it - when I went away in August.
    Nonetheless, they keep delivering it - too late for me to read before I go to work.

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  15. I posted today about how my hubs and I walk to the store on Sundays to get the paper. We take plastic bags and pick up trash along the way too. It's one of the few times I go walking these days. Anyway, it makes us go walking together.
    There's an active railroad track next to the baseball fields where my boys play. It feels like such old school America to watch kids play ball and hear the train whistle too.

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  16. I still read the online version of the paper from my hometown, it's a good way to keep connected to the roots.

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  17. you love columnists???

    you do?

    then you love me..ha!

    i am a columnist...:-)

    just the other day at the airport when i went to hamburg to bring my godson home i had really bad luck because my flight home was at 4 o clock..which made me wait like 3 hours..so i got me a drink and a place in the airport restaurant...took out my laptop and started writing..i wrote and wrote and wrote..until, out of a sudden, two ladies ( age late 60ies) asked me what i m doing..i said: "i m writing"..you do ? they asked...yes maám..i said..for a living??? the kept on asking..again i answered yes...and..what are you writiung about the two nic eladies asked me...errr*..well..thats a bit difficult to explain i said..trying to find a way out of this subject..oh my god!! the older lady screamed..you dont answer because you write about S_E_X...do you??..er...well...yes..i do..i m a sexcolumnist..now you know it...bless my heart..:-)

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  18. Michele Renee- I just read that post and it was fabulous. Thanks for telling me about it here. I've added you to my google reader.

    Ginger- Yep. That's true. And a good idea. But it's still not...the paper.

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  19. Danielle- Well honey, that is truly awesome! A German sex columnist! I believe you may be my only reader who can claim to make his or her living from writing about sex. I am quite impressed! Yes! Bless your heart! This just tickles me, I have to tell you.

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  20. I have never had a newspaper subscription of my own, so I don't know much about it from firsthand knowledge. Still the idea that anything like that would be simply forgotten because of TV and Internet makes me really, really sad. Like that dumb Kinlde thing you can get to read books on; what the hell is wrong with actually holding something tangible in your hands and reading it? I love the sounds of pages being turned, love the way paper feels and smells.....sigh.

    And I love trains; the sound of their whistles makes me feel lonely and happy at the same time.

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  21. I love this post so much. I think you should send it to the newspaper and try to get it published. Maybe even send it to the NY Times. It's so beautiful and perfect. And I keep trying to cancel my Sunday NY Times subscription (after 23 years) and every time I call, the receptionist convinces me not to by offering me a ridiculous discount to extend it and then I feel so bad and isn't that ridiculous? Like the NY Times cares that I continue to get their newspaper? And guess what -- I loved Brenda Starr as a kid, too. That was literally the ONLY comic I liked beside for Peanuts.

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  22. Kori- That is it about trains exactly.

    Elizabeth- I thought I was the only one who would remember Brenda Starr.
    And bless you for still getting the NYT.

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  23. Starr. Moon. Coincidence? I think not!

    I stopped the Democrap's delivery last spring. The only thing I miss is not having newspaper with which to start a fire in the fireplace. I've sworn to my husband that if I ever have low blood pressure, the online version would serve as an excellent non-prescription remedy. The hatred that seems to flow in the comments folks post is frightening.

    You rock Ms. Moon. Thank you for writing.

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  24. I miss trains. I used to live right up the street (maybe a block) from a very active train. I have train envy.

    I love you, you wonderful anachronism, you.

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  25. I remember trains. . .a field trip to Quincy (Yes! A train ran from Tallahassee to Quincy!) in the first grade (1951). . . taking a train with Mamma to Indiana when I was eight years old and eating pancakes in the dining car. . . taking a train to Miami with my best friend when I was thirteen to spend the summer with my aunt. . . Mamma packed a boxed lunch in a large shoebox lined with waxed paper--fried chicken, boiled eggs, and biscuits. . . love movie scenes where the actors are in private compartments being served lunch on white tablecloths with silver coffee pots and that heavy hotel dinnerware. . . loved riding the train to work every day in Chiacago with my thermos of coffee, apple fritters, and a book of short stories. . . wish they'd bring 'em back better than ever. . . high-walled seating between seats for privacy. . . remember that train scene in CASONO ROYALE? Bonus: They don't fall out of the sky.

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