Broke by a Thousand Papercuts

Okay, alright, not broke and I have no paper cuts. What I’m talking about is all the damn newspaper paywalls. I want to read every single article about my lovely killer whaley chums, every damn one, but they’re behind paywalls. I swear, I used to be able to get three, maybe four free reads in per month at The Washington Post, The NY and LA Times but no more.

There are a whole mess of other papers and mags I’d check in on semi-regularly if not for the those damn walls. I *think* I signed up for Vanity Fair but, if I did, I’ve forgotten my login info. I could’ve sworn I had one to Rolling Stone too.

If I subscribed to all the places with interesting headlines:

• I’d be broke from a zillion little subscription fees.
  
• I just know I’d log in only occasionally thus wasting my sign on fee.

Back when ink on paper was a thing, The Amazing Bob and I got The Boston Globe and had Sunday-only delivery of The NY Times. We got Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair too. Why’d we stop? Newspaper delivery here in Valhalla blew massive, solid state chunks. That and our mailbox, though on our covered porch, never failed to let in all the rain and snow.

Instead, TAB and I would go up to the corner store for the Globe (they didn’t carry the Times) or take a drive to the next town over—where there was a bookstore which sold all the periodicals and papers. We’d pick up reading matter, drive back and read over a late lunch at a nearby diner.

Both bookstore and diner are gone now. As is TAB.

I stopped making the newspaper/magazine/lunch outings not long after TAB shuffled off this mortal coil. It wasn’t the same with him gone. OF FUCKING COURSE IT WASN'T. No longer a chill, comfy, fun excursion—it just made me horribly sad.

Now I read on my laptop or Kindle where I can easily enlarge the font sizes and zoom in on pics. Also, there really are enough reputable free news sites—I don’t need to subscribe to a paper. I COULD conceivably read The NY Times at my local library but, during the Trump White House years, it seemed like the rag had begun to tack rightward.

According to The New Republic:

You shouldn’t unsubscribe from The New York Times over a bad headline. Or even over a bad pattern of editorial decisions dating back years demonstrating an institutional worldview poisoned by false equivalence, blinkered elitism, and fealty to power. Don’t unsubscribe to punish them, or as economic leverage to force them to Do Better. You should instead unsubscribe from the Times because the Paper of Record doesn’t need your money.
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The Times is a paper for the East Coast rich. If that doesn’t describe you, the paper is not making editorial decisions with you in mind.

I’m on the East Coast but I’m, most def, not rich. I’ll stick with what I’m doing now—if I see a a must read story, I can google it. I’ll undoubtedly find news reports on whatever it is at the BBC, Al Jazeera or The Guardian.

For opinion pieces and arts articles, it’d be wicked sweet to have open access again to Rolling Stone and The New Yorker. The Atlantic too. Instead of doomscrolling, I could check in to one of my online mags. This could be a valuable investment in my sanity.