The preliminaries

On a Saturday morning a couple of months ago, I was brutally ejected from my bed to fetch The New York Times from the nearest bodega so that a certain someone could leisurely peruse it whilst sipping a cup of tea. Off I went, wiping the sleep from my eyes as the elevator de-elevated me to the lobby of my building, where a dozen or so blue plastic bags were propped against the wall of the foyer. Each of these bags, of course, contained a copy of that day's Times. I'd long since given up aspirations to sainthood (not so hot on the martyrdom), so I snatched one and jumped back in the elevator, glad to have kept my $3 or whatever the Saturday paper costs these days. I apologize to whichever late-sleeping neighbor ended up without their paper, though I like to think one of you was out of town that weekend, thus my crime had no victim. I offered this excuse when I reentered my apartment a minute later, though I still met with disapproval. The disapprover, however, was soon enjoying the stolen goods. I believe this constitutes acquiescence.

ANYWAY, I so enjoyed reading the print version that morning, pen in one hand as I butted heads with the crossword, and mug of coffee in the other, that I resolved to get a daily subscription. Of course, I also didn't want to have to walk to the bodega the next time I was obliged to produce the day's newspaper for a certain someone. So that someone, it could be said, is responsible for my subscription and thus this blog and thus your impatience with this rambling post.

But what is this blog exactly? Well, it is a celebration of the printed daily in all of its oversized, cheap-inked, and fading glory. It is a presentation of certain interesting articles, stories, facts, factoids and tidbits from the NYT and other sundry sources, with my own opinion thrown in for good measure. It is a meditation on the printed daily in our time. It is a chronicle of my affair with The Gray Lady. It is many things. To get down to brass tacks, it's simply me geeking out about whatever I read in the paper.