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Showing posts from September, 2021

Death of The Payphone

Halfway to the grocery store I realized I'd left my cell phone on the kitchen counter.  Panicked, I looked for an easy place to turn around, but nothing was easy.  So, I made the bold decision to keep going.  Hey, I lived for years without a cell phone. Why do I need one now just to go to the grocery store?   Pushing my cart through the aisles I was twitching. I needed that phone. What if something happens and I need to make a call?  I made it safely through the checkout without a heart attack or armed robbery, and headed back to my car... scanning for a payphone... just in case.      Nothing.   Driving home,  I looked on every corner hoping to see my old friend, the Payphone.   I drove for blocks... looking up and down streets, in mini malls, and in gas stations until finally, outside a dilapidated liquor store, there it was.  A payphone.    Beaten,  broken, and covered in grime, this was once the great equalizer.   Everyone, rich and poor, used this shared tool to communic

I was wrong about the paper

About a year ago I gave up newspapers.  Too bulky,  a waste of paper,  and I got all the news I could digest from the internet.   I love the way I can skim through articles on my smartphone. .. it's efficient and easy to access.  But on a recent getaway to a sunny spot in California,  I was reintroduced to The Paper.  And  it's better. .. lots better.  In the wake of dwindling circulation,  the LA Times has retooled, with a narrower,  easy to handle format,  a clean layout,  and what's seems to be. .. fewer ads?   In other words,  it's fantastic.  And so I did something i swore I'd never do.   I resubscribed.    Maybe,  just maybe... the tactile experience of the morning paper isn't dead.   Plus,  now if I ever need to wrap a fish,  I've got something to wrap it in.