Begging the Question

Alright, so a number of you commented on this morning's post about the NY Times. But not a single one of you made any reference to the link within. Maybe I was too subtle. Lord knows, I'm accused of that all the time. So just in case you missed the fact that my entire post was just a run up to getting you to read something fabulous, let me run it again.

Please. Go read THIS.

You can thank me later.

And btw, "this" is actually a very funny looking word.

All The News That's Fit to Print

I started my day, as I frequently do, with a cuppa coffee and the NY Times, which I read online.

(We subscribe to the Seattle Times, which I don't read except maybe on Sunday, sometimes. The Spouse reads it on the bus. Then he brings it home and gives us "the quiz"...some goofy little "test your knowledge" thing. It's a dinner time game. And then he tosses it into a big basket behind his chair that eventually freaks me out so I dump it in the recycling. My point is that I sometimes advocate for dropping our subscription but he won't hear of it because he likes the comics. Even though I'm pretty sure he could find every one of them on line, for free).

Reading the NY Times isn't something I do to feel superior to my Seattle Times reading husband. It's just that the local paper doesn't do much of a job of international issues or national politics and that's the stuff in which I'm interested (even though blah blah, all politics is local, blah blah). Plus, the NY Times does reviews of plays and musicals that I'll get to see in 3-5 years when they finally get around to touring all the way out here. And the NY Times has really good columnists.

For a while there, you may be aware, the NY Times was trying this thing called "Times Select", wherein if you wanted to read Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman or David Brooks you had to sign up, pay money and then and only then could read them online.

Seriously.

I was furious. So furious that I almost cancelled my subscription, for which I pay $0.00. I flirted with the Washington Post. [Actually, more than flirted. We get together at least a couple times a week. And the BBC. We're not even going to count NPR because that's the radio. Totally different.]

I wouldn't have objected, theoretically, to them charging a small annual fee for an on-line subscription. I probably wouldn't have paid it, but in theory it would not have been offensive. What bugged me was the suggestions that parts of the website were sooooo special and soooooo fabulous that not everyone was worthy to read them unless they proved their worthiness by paying.

I tend to think of myself as 'specially fabulous but I don't need to pay to prove it, thankyouverymuch.

So for months I'd look at that stupid red "Times Select" button and quietly seethe.

But the Times just recently abandoned their stupid little buttons. I forget why. Perhaps because they realized they earn their website money from ad revenue just like everybody else. Maybe it's because hardly anyone was clicking on those little buttons yet the editorials were still getting out there. [People silly enough to pay were doubtless emailing columns to friends. Folks could still pick up the print copy of the Times, for free, in a coffee shop and reading whatever they wanted].

Maybe, just maybe, people like Mo and Paul and Dave saw a significant drop off in their mail and went to their editors and said, "Hey! No one is reading us anymore".

I don't know. I don't care. I just needed something to write about this morning that didn't have anything to do with the 10+ and still counting hours I've spent on the school directory. But I'm glad the NY Times got rid of those silly little buttons because it meant that I could enjoy this with my morning coffee.

Some Updates

The Cat

Our vet saw her yesterday. She is much improved in fiestiness and spirits, which is a good thing. It suggests she's responding to the antibiotics. He did find some other things which could be indicative of a more severe condition, however, so he's doing some blood work and we'll see if that tells us anything. Meanwhile, she's dehydrated so if she doesn't seem to be drinking enough we have to push fluids. Hi. Picture me administering an IV bag to a rascally cat. Yeah, I can't see it, either.

We should have the blood tests back today or tomorrow.

The Child is being very brave and hopeful. Which is sweet and distressing. This is really hard for her.

By the time I was her age I'd seen so many animals go to their reward. I lived on a farm growing up. It happened. And if they were sick, Sean Connory was the one who moved them on to the next realm. (Something he did not enjoy, btw). Besides a frog, 2 fish and a couple of stick bugs, The Child hasn't had to really deal with pet death. The frog, that was tragic, as she'd raised it from a tadpole. But after a proper keening and a liturgically correct funeral, she was pretty much over it. The Cat would be a much bigger deal.

This sucks.

The Job

I learned yesterday that my application has made it past the HR people and onto the desk of the Department Director. Said Director has been in London and just returned. So I'm assuming I'm only one of 412,000 things she has to deal with in the next couple of weeks. But it was nice to know that I've been deemed a qualified candidate by HR. I continue to be very excited by the possibilities of this gig so that news made me superfantastically happy.

Newspapers

City Mouse gave me a fine addition for the newspaper list I posted yesterday:

The Chicago Tribune is read by people who work their butts off so other people can run the country.

This inspired me to consider another omission from the list:

The Seattle Times is read by people who are trying to come to consensus on whether to commission a study to determine the viability of developing a non-partisan board to conduct a survey on whether to call a public vote on the question of the desirability of running the country. Latte, anyone?

Baseball

The Mariners are 3-10 in spring training. Bodes well. Not.