"Trials and Tribunes"

While futilely attempting to clear some space in my minuscule residence (henceforth known as the Wendellair), I marveled at the sheer volume of old newspaper accumulated. Now, I only subscribe to one dead-tree publication, and it’s the local small-town daily, not the BIG CITY Times, so there isn’t that much paper to start with. (In fact, like much of the ink-stained industry, it’s shrinking – last week it cut down the size of its SPORTS section, forgoodnesssake!) The only time it has any heft at all is on Sunday, when every retail chain with a store in the county throws in a multi-page ad (except WalMart: they insert their ads in Saturday’s paper). And the paper doesn’t always end up in the Wendellair – when I take my aren’t-you-jealous frequent trips to the beach, I take the paper with me (something to read when my mind wanders from the scenery AND a way to show others near me I am NOT a tourist) and dump it in the Recycling Bin out front when I return.

So why is there SO MUCH NEWSPAPER around here? Well, I may have figured it out with a glimpse of the paper’s masthead:

or rather, half of the masthead the way the paper was folded:

and realized that this was not any ordinary newspaper. THIS IS…