Thursday, May 28, 2020

Wet newspaper

My newspaper was wet this morning.
Should I report it? If I did, I'd get a credit for that newspaper. For those of you who may not have gotten a daily newspaper for some time, they are expensive. This one is $2.95 for a weekday edition. Considering its size and number of pages, that's a lot. Blame the internet for sucking up the ad revenue.
It's not the money, though. The carrier is new and though the bag was tied shut the carrier probably didn't know that even newspapers well wrapped in plastic get wet if they sit on a driveway in the rain for an hour or so. Blame osmosis. If I reported it, the carrier would possibly ask around and find out that it should be double bagged in the manner the previous carrier did. Or would the new carrier just get in trouble? A demerit of some kind? And do I want two bags in an age in which we're already awash in plastic? The paper was readable.
There's a class issue too. The carrier wakes before dawn to do a difficult job for very little money, while I saunter down the driveway after eight, having woken without an alarm clock and showered, the day ahead of me as open as any can be during a plague. Oh sure, I have my own problems, but the carrier wouldn't know that and they're unrelated to a wet newspaper besides
I ended up taking the coward's option, which is doing nothing and hoping enough other people will request a credit to make the carrier change the method of delivery on rainy days.
The front page headline of this newspaper is about how over 100,000 Americans have now died from the virus. Contrast the misery of that with the pettiness of my caring about getting a wet newspaper.
I hate myself.

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