December 28, 2012

• Fell asleep on the sofa, TV on, Miss Dolly snuggled under the blanket. Three in the morning, a light in the driveway broadcast by lights playing peek-a-boo with the Venetian blinds. The morning newspaper was deposited in my driveway. The lights went away as the delivery man backed out of my drive.

  The Wichita Eagle is available on line. I get the paper daily. I also look stuff up on their web page. Sedgwick County boasts 501,076 people - a 2010 census stat. Wichita boast 384,445 of that figure, by the same census. The Wichita Eagle boasts a daily circulation of 92,721. Their Sunday paper - the one with the most advertisements - is 148,624.

  The Eagle’s Opinion Line is a daily inclusion on the Op/ED page. There are usually about 6 letters to the editor an average of 12-15 published opinions per day. Non-published opinions are included in the Eagle’s on line edition.

  Last year, I had 19 opinions published and many more included in the on line edition. I had one letter published. I inspired two articles to be written. One was about biking rules on city streets and sidewalks. The other was about the public library system.

  I grew up newspapers as a part of the society in which I lived. Wichita had two major newspapers - the morning Eagle, the afternoon Beacon. Eventually the two merged. There are small newspapers, too. Still are, but often looking like a small magazine section of a larger newspaper. There’s one in Spanish, another in Viet Namese.

  We used to get the mail delivered twice a day. Now we are hearing about 5 or 6 days a week delivery, once a day. One year I wrote to every tourist agency in all 48 states, and each Canadian Provence, and Mexico. I waited by the mailbox on Saturday, hoping for catalogues to arrive. The same with cereal premiums - a small deed to an square inch of property I the Yukon, the place where Sergeant Preston and his dog, King, always got the bad guys. Secret decoder rings, photographs of the Green Hornet or Hopalong Cassidy.

  Times change. I try to change with the times, but that doesn’t mean that I forget the past, or regret that some of the magic of my formative years have all but disappeared under the sands of time.

  Television is a wasteland, by and large. Early morning television is infomercials. One station has news, but it repeats every half hour. This morning, maybe 4 in the morning, Mitch McConnell is firmly stating that he waited for a phone call that never came. He doesn’t say from who the call that didn’t come might have been from. Was he waiting for Godot? Perhaps, John Boehner? Perhaps President Obama? I guess old Mitch hasn’t learned that phones are bi-directional, that he can call out, not just smugly wait for an incoming call.

  Its all posturing. As I review the shit John Boehner said 4 years ago, it’s as if he has been reading the same script year after years.

  Damn, Mayans. We’ve been robbed!

  • 8:10 am
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