The title of the post is the headline in today’s Beacon Journal. The Akron Beacon
Journal, my childhood newspaper. The repository of funnies and Ann Landers.
Even back then my dad would occasionally task me with circling all the
grammatical and spelling errors in the day’s edition.
It’s a very slim edition these days and most stories are
from the wire. They do cover the local
news, which oscillates between crime and road construction, with a high
probability of high school sports every weekend, and our major sports teams,
the Cavaliers, the Browns, the Indians. It’s often called the Reekin’ Journal, which is not fair.
Transposed information is not new for them.
Good news for those of us pretty far west in the eastern
time zone, it’s daylight for about half an hour past five in the evening. On
the first day of winter, December 20, more or less, it is dark at 4:59! But the
big snow storm Saturday probably obscures our eclipse event.
Here’s another thing that annoys me. Newspapers and
magazines that cannot keep track of subscriptions. I was following a thread in
the Reekin’ Journal recently, and the article would fade to grey and tell me my
subscription was run out. “Well fine!”, and I'd move on to the next paper
in my in-box. Eventually I was fed up, subscribed, and went to Wisconsin for
Christmas.
I tried opening the Journal when I came back. My password
had expired; check my inbox for a new password. Days went by. Then one day, the
Journal opened. Go figure.
But how about a big, important publication, The New Yorker. I got the brand new tote
last November or December, just to show I’d responded to the renewal notice. I
read a current article, What it Felt Like when “Cat Person” went Viral. A flyer at the bottom of the screen informed
me I had three articles left this month. Not to worry, when their knickers are
in a total twist I’ll just sign in and release the hold.
The article was about the author’s original piece, Cat Person, going viral. I’d not read
that, and there was a link to it, back at the beginning of the piece. I
scrolled up and clicked on the link. And, I glanced at the flag at the end. Now I
have two articles left this month.
Online anything generally drives me nuts. We've buckets of rain at the moment, and, sadly, mudslides down south. May the weekend snow not be too bad afterall.
ReplyDeleteThat storm is coming our way this weekend right after the the other storm leaves. They talk about it for days before, scaring us all, and driving up the cost of milk, eggs, and bread.
ReplyDeleteFrom "thirty inches to a foot" is quite an error. And there are print copies of this paper? Another example of the inadequacy of our educational system. Surprising that you were finding many errors when you were a child, Maybe I just was not paying attention back then. We are expecting temps in the 20's in TX this weekend. Dry, though.
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeletehehehe, our wee local rag (The Dunoon Observer) holds the same entertainment value! ...and now I also have 2... YAM xx
30 inches of snow had my jaw dropping until I realised the mistake.
ReplyDeleteDoes a subscription only get you a limited number of articles to read? I would have thought you could read an entire paper after you've paid for it. I don't subscribe to any papers online and only buy two papers here each week, that's as much news as I can handle.
We are getting the storm after you. Batten down the hatches!
ReplyDeleteI envy you. We could do with a natural distraction over here.
ReplyDeleteI guess that distraction is unnatural.
DeleteIt's verging on supernatural.
DeleteAfter reading River's comment, I realized that I had mistakenly assumed the title was supposed to read "30 inches to 3 feet"!! Now that's the difference in living in Canada versus living in Australia, in a nutshell :) Thirty inches is not frequent here but it's not unheard of!
ReplyDeleteIf I know you, everything is well stocked. So hope you are well stocked too. Hugs from the hill waiting for the big rain storm.
ReplyDeleteI subscribe to the local paper, and read things online when the spirit moves me.
ReplyDeleteIt been a while since I looked at a paper. plenti of grammer and spelling mistakes on the net, including blogs.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
We get a local paper delivered for free once a week. The errors make my teeth hurt! Yes, I caught the "30 inches to a foot". I don't subscribe to any papers. I do, sometimes, watch the news on tv. Husband is more of a news / politics person than I am. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteWe rarely get snow here (N West South Carolina) but I've never seen a snowfall even close to that amount.
ReplyDeleteWatson: "What's afoot, Holmes?"
ReplyDeleteHolmes: "12 inches".
We just commented on the light last evening.
ReplyDeleteAnd ... I certainly hope they get the measly 30" and not that dreadful foot. lol
Well don't leave us in 'suspenders' as my Dad would say....how DID the cat lady feel when she went viral? We're supposed to get that weather this weekend as well. 30 inches to a foot hmmm?
ReplyDeleteSeems that many of us are attractive to the same spammers.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with online subscriptions! With the New Yorker- exactly the same. And with our local paper which I have been subscribing to for too many years to count. My husband has tried and tried to work that out after I gave up. Still? No resolution.
I hope you only get two feet of snow and not the thirty inches.
several newspapers limit the number of free articles you can read online...except for on my iphone. for some reason I can read unlimited on it, even the NYT. the Washington Post though still demands a subscription. I'm appalled at all the misspellings and grammatical errors I see in the news services. don't they proofread anymore? hopefully you'll just get the 3(0)".
ReplyDeleteOur local news rag sounds like yours. Sad isn't it? It's so nice to be eating our early dinner with light coming in the windows again. I don't think we are forecast to get so much snow this time 'round. We have enough thanks. Mother Nature is welcome to take this extreme cold away too.
ReplyDeleteI love the New Yorker. I've been tempted to subscribe to the hard copy.
I was thinking of subscribing to our local paper for a bit just to see what it covered. Maybe I should buy one off the rack first. I hope you don't get all that snow predicted! It is nice that light is finally coming back to the afternoons! Now it gets completely dark here about 6 p.m., before it was closer to 5:30.
ReplyDeletebetty
Here in the UK we are expecting some snow too. I could do with buying some milk.
ReplyDeleteI hope the storm isn't too bad for you.
We have 2 newspapers a day delivered. If I read one online I fall asleep.
I have been reading mostly headlines for a long time now. Only the most interesting are clicked on and read. It saves me from developing an ulcer.
ReplyDeleteSince we stopped the actual newspaper a while back, the only news we get is on the TV or our iPhone. The TV news you have to have on and tuned in... the iPhone just pops up with any breaking news.
ReplyDeleteYour title reminds me that people don't think, they just talk.
ReplyDeleteIt did snow here for four minutes before it rained but now the sun's shining ...
ReplyDeleteThat is a lot of snow in the forecast. Hope that it isn't as bad as predicted. Our local paper just cares about the bottom line so there isn't much in there worth reading as they have also laid off most of their stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like too much snow! Europe is having it bad too, though London has escaped so far this winter.
ReplyDeletehope, the snow isn't as bad as predicted
ReplyDeletehave a great weekend
Dear Joanne, today I put away my christmas gifts. The lovely green towels went into my towel drawer in the kitchen. Thank you again.
ReplyDeleteAs to snow. In that same system, we were supposed to get 4-6 inches here in western Missouri and got nothing but a dusting. I hope you weren't inundated. But perhaps you, like I, really love snow. the thing is though that nowadays someone has to shovel it for me and that's asking a lot.
As to the online newspapers, I get the New York Times. I, too, used to run out of the 10 articles i could read a month. So I bit the bullet and got a subscription. It's $15 a month, but I can read it at my leisure--politics, columns, and editorials are what I favor along with book reviews. Peace.