So The Times (the vaunted national "newspaper of record") may shut down The Boston Globe

- allegedly New England's "NoR" - maybe (to all three propositions), but is it a cultural tragedy or just one more step in the evolution of communication? I grew up in a two newspaper town (Springfield Massachusetts had The Republican and The Union back in the 50s) and when we moved to the greater Boston Metro area ('59) there were three or four (let's see, Globe, Traveler, Herald, Record, American (or Record-American?) which later fused into the Herald-Traveler and Record-American, and the Sunday Advertiser. There may have been more, I'm not sure. The point is newspapers aren't all-of-a-sudden disappearing, and certainly not for nefarious reasons. They're no longer commercially viable as a mode of mass communication. Period. If they were profitable, they wouldn't be going out of business.

When I subscribed to a newspaper, it was the Globe for a long time, then it was a more local paper, as I got more & more of my national & global information from radio (NPR) and online over the last 15 years. Newspapers ceased to have a place for me partly because they're physically awkward, they lack immediacy, you can't really read the paper while you're driving, etc.

So what do we lose when we stop reading the paper? I haven't subscribed to a newspaper for 15 years or so, 10 at least. I've missed crossword puzzles, the funnies, lots of biased bloviating, tons of dubious reportage, but I've gotten more than my share of that elsewhere. I guess I'm part of the problem - a physical newspaper holds no magic for me whatsoever. Oddly, I don't feel the same at all about books, and don't EVEN threaten my pulp copy of the TLS...

Well the Northspoon didn't rise up and flood us (didn't expect it to) and it's beginning to subside a little. The yard's a mess of course, and the wooded parts of the property are going to need some serious tending to; there's dead branches all over, any number of trees actually broken in two and whatnot, and the grass took another beating from the moles, or woodchucks, or whatever the critters are that have been eating it from below for the past couple of winters. I hate to poison 'em, but I may yet resort to that. Spraying fox urine-scented repellent around didn't seem to have much effect. Maybe they know the foxes are long gone from this neighborhood. Also need to build a wee doghouse for the generator we bought during the long darkness of early December. Would never have thought we'd have such a tool, but it was significantly cheaper to buy one than to rent one for 10 days, and the "peace of mind" factor, for us folks getting on in years, is high, as well. Added to which, it occurred to me recently, we now have the option of using electrically powered tools out in the wayback of the yard, and in the woods. I'll hafta look into that. In the meantime, the renovation o the kids' bedrooms proceeds - one is done entirely, walls, ceiling, woodwork freshened up, floor sanded, sealed and new polyurethane put down, etc. So now we're in the midst of stripping wallpaper from the other one, patching up the sheetrock, and will be papering soon, repainting woodwork, sanding, sealing & varnishing the floor in there. So it goes. Seems like I just finished re-doing the whole house not more than fifteen years ago...