The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
A Dollar Per Week
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B001BZ47G6&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrWeekend Assignment #321: Where’s Your Buggy Whip?
We sometimes hear the expression, “XXX has gone the way of the buggy whip.” In other words, technology and society have moved on, and something that was once commonplace barely exists anymore because it’s no longer needed. Do you still have something in your home that has become essentially useless? If so, why do you still have it? If not, when did you get rid of it?
Extra Credit: Have you ever worked in an industry that has gone the way of the buggy whip, or is in danger of doing so?
I still subscribe to the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune. You know, a real newspaper printed on…newsprint. Back in the day, I read it every Sunday. Spread it out on the family room floor and went through it section by section. During the week, I would just read it online. But on Sunday, I read the paper. I remember how ticked I was when they moved the Book Section to the Saturday edition. Anyway, when I was finished, I used it to line the cage of Kiwi the Grey.
Well. I haven’t read the paper in over two years – since I went back to school. I didn’t go back to it when I finished school, but I sometimes pull out the bag with the coupons. Which I could do online, also. Even lining the cage with newspaper became cumbersome, so I am buying cage liner from the rescue where I volunteer.
So I still pay for the Sunday paper every week and I cannot make myself cancel it. I feel like it is my duty as a citizen to support the Trib. I’m sure I’ll get over it someday. Like when they make me pay to read it online.
The Next Dark Age 
It's kind of a tough problem, isn't it? I have this ongoing banter with a man who sets up at Safeway to give away weekday papers and try to sell Sunday subscriptions. One of our two daily papers folded a year and a half ago, so it's important to support the remaining one. But I never open the thing, even if I get it for free! They need to find a way to make the online versions pay, or the whole industry will disappear. And that would be a disaster.
There's something about the weekend papers. In England I used to buy the Weekend Guardian, and sometimes, when no one was looking, the Sunday Times (it had a cool magazine). I'd read some sections and leave the others. There's something so comforting about having a big pile of papers to read at the weekend.But also, what a waste of paper!
We've been meaning to change over to the Sunday only plan, too. It's such a waster to get it delivered everyday when we read it online.