The newspaper

I love reading the newspaper. Someday I want to have the leisure to read the sections I like front to back without any interruption, preferably on back back porch with good weather. Unfortunatly now it piles up and makes messes, so I have finally reailzed I have to cancel my Tribune subscription. So sad. It ends next week.
I did have the chance to read the main section today, which is my favorite section. I especially like the opinions and editorials page. Garrison Keillor is one of my favorite writers of this section, for his wit and thoughtfulness, as well as the fact that I grew up listening to him on late night car rides or Saturday evenings at home, because my parents were fans of his Prarie Home Companion Radio show. I thought his editorial today was great. I was wondering what he would say about the bridge collapse since Minnesota is his home. It was a little more sarcastic than I thought it would be, but I loved it. Here's part of it:

The bridge collapse was front-page news in New York, though, and for three days running. Bridges are not supposed to fall down unless there is an earthquake. A person is supposed to be able to drive home on a summer evening and cross a river on a steel truss bridge and not find himself plunging headlong into the abyss.Especially not in Minnesota. We are a state of Germans and Scandinavians, people who make up in common sense for what we lack in sheer charisma, and a shabby piece of engineering is an embarrassment to us. Minnesota isn't Uzbekistan.
The way to get money to fix a bridge is for it to collapse and kill people, and so Congress promptly awarded Minnesota $250 million for the fallen I-35W span. The usual suspects held news conferences to express shock and concern, pledge support, etc. The governor called for a time of healing and he proclaimed confidence in his commissioner of transportation, a large ebullient woman in a bright red blouse. There were prayer services. The Current Occupant came to view the wreckage and to express, in that intense and aimless way of his, his hopes for a better life for us. And then, having raised our hopes, he did not resign from office after all.
(Chicago Tribune, August 8, 2007, Section 1, p25)


Oh I'm going to miss my late night reads with the paper!