Why I Miss Newspapers

There are moments when I am not speaking as Pastor Peter, the minister and nice guy, blah de blah.  There are moments when I need to vent.  Like now.  

There are a lot of reasons why I miss newspapers.  The weekend Sunday color comics for example.  Black ink leeching onto my skin for another.  

Getting to the point especially.

I have defaulted to the Google's feed for my news stories.  Yes, that probably reduces the quality of my life, but that's another story.  But it makes me long for newspapers.

They got to the point.  After the Headline, they had one paragraph, maybe 1-3 sentences to get my attention and get me reading.  So the necessary stuff was in the opening.  If I wanted to read on, there were literal paragraphs to follow, if I was so inclined.

But now I have to click.  So the headline was "Final Notice: Dollywood, Dolly Parton's Theme Park, Suspends All Operations Without Refund."  I have been to Dollywood, more than once.  I like Dollywood.  I am a big fan of Dolly Parton, I love her album of rock songs.  I love Beyonce's cover of Jolene, but I love Dolly's more.  So this caught my attention.  It blew my brain to find out she wrote the theme music to the various rides.  I want to go back just to the blacksmithy 'make your own' part.

Not only did I have to click, but I had to scroll.  A teaser is dropped in the first paragraph, something about 'unsafe conditions', before an extended introduction extolling the virtues of the park.  The park is virtuous, get on with it!  What happened in Tennessee!!  Why is Dollywood gone??

It's not gone.  It's weather.  It is safety for guests and crew.  It is a necessary precaution in the face of conditions in the Southeast.  It took too many scrolls to get to the point.  "Final Notice"??  Makes it sound like "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot".