I got The New York Times today.
Faithfully, daily, a blue wrapped bundle
is dropped on the front porch of our home
in Salem, Oregon. My wife and I share and
browse and ponder the ways of the world as
it unfolds before us in print. Coffee and cereal
and words well placed are a part of a morning
ritual that I imagine help many in America
wake up. Physically and metaphorically.

When I find the time, I go to a screen and post
electronic tidbits onto various blog sites that I
have nourished over the years like an electronic secret
garden that I can openly share with anyone who
happens to stumble upon them. The New York Times
provides about 98% of the items I post in my blogs.
The electronic publishing-site sharing included
with a subscription to the printed version works
efficiently and reliably.

Sometimes I wonder why we pay the extra expense
of having the print version delivered. Habit, helping
the economy, the native feel of paper in hand, perhaps
being the reason.

This morning in fine fortune cookie like print there
was a message placed in a lower corner of a section
of the grey lady simply reading "No day is complete
without The New York Times".

When I went to my computer to  compile some
articles on my blog sites--- nytimes.com was down.
Electronically speaking nonfunctioning, unavailable.
I got The New York Times today.