It's our daily delivery of dead tree pulp, finely ground and rolled and imprinted with the latest follies of humankind.
Yes, we could scan the news on our iPads, iPhones or laptops. We could flip on the car radio and hear about the scandals and theories in the secure bubble of our automobiles. We could curl up in an easy chair with a cup of milky sweet Earl Gray and watch CNN. Or we could get the news (or what algorithms have deigned would delight us) from a Facebook feed.
On the other hand ... we could unwrap the newspaper from its protective sheath, take it on the bus with us. We could dive into it as if into a cool, slow-moving stream. Could let the information and opinions it offers take us in directions we never could have imagined. Could wind up informed and inspired and enraged and smeared with ink.
But that's only if we're old school. Which so few of us are anymore. Hard copy? Dead trees? You betcha. I'm old school and proud. You'll have to pry my print paper out of my cold, dead hands.
(Jon S. Creative Commons, from WNPR)