The Dawn Patrol
The newspaper is late. For the second day in a row. And I worry that this is a new pattern that I'm going to have to learn to live with. I hate new patterns.
Listeners sometimes ask how I manage to keep up with all the different subjects we cover on the show every week. Part of the answer is that we have a terrific staff; here on the Blog you guys know that, since you read Barrie, Sarah, and Scott all the time. But another part of the reason is sheer, persistent habit. A less generous soul might describe it as obsessive. In short, I am a creature of habit. I read two newspapers very morning before I go to work, I try to read one or two more when I get there, and I read the wires all day long. Even during the show, I have the AP ticker (that's a word that betrays my age) up on one computer screen and CNN on the TV. After 9/11, I don't want to be surprised. I guess I don't read so much as scan from 2-4 ET, but you get the point. The subway rides to and from work are precious half hours of solid reading time. I jigger my schedule to try to ensure I can get a seat, take out whatever book is up next on the show, uncap a pen, and plunge in. Evenings, after dinner, the book and the pen come out again, which is one reason I love baseball season. Games on TV appear to have been designed to allow for multi-tasking as most everything of interest is replayed, and there's plenty of commercial time to keep the pages turning.
But it all breaks down if the newspaper is late. The great A.J. Liebling once wrote, "Like any coward, I read the newspaper from back to front." He referred, of course, to the tabloids that splash sports across the back page, and both of the papers that arrive at my front door every day, The New York Times and The Washington Post, are broadsheets. The Post comes first -- AHH, I just heard it thump! 35 minutes late, but still in time for me to follow Liebling in spirit... I begin with the funnies. How's Spidey going to get out of this one?
Gotta Run.
6:36 AM ET | 05- 1-2007 | permalink
