Smelling the Neighborhood

Last rainy season, after several days in a row of getting my newspaper drenched (even inside two plastic bags) I had decided that I would let the subscription expire and start reading it on an iPad. The moment came this week but I am having second thoughts. The reason? I like walking out of my house at 7am to pick up the day's paper. That is the moment when I normally realize if the day is warm or cold. It is some weekdays the only time I set foot on my street (as I otherwise mostly drive in and out of my house). It is sometimes the occasion when I interact with a neighbor that walks by with his dog. I love walking into the typical cool & misty SF morning...

A few years from now physical newspapers will disappear altogether. Think about the waste of all that paper & ink, the delivery, and the disposal. Every day. It doesn't make sense with the technology that is fast becoming mainstream. To a lesser extent the same can be said about physical books. Books are not as bad since they have a longer "shelf-live". Still... P said he still prefers to read physical books, and N said he wanted a tablet with pretend physical pages. But there is no way around it. Those who enjoy physical books, papers and magazines should enjoy them while the can. They are a "luxury" and will soon become collectors items. This reminds me of an article I read a few days ago (in my printed paper) about car collectors concern with the disappearance of cars with standard transmission. They worry that no one in tomorrow's generation will be able to drive a collectors car. I am glad I taught the boys how to drive standard this summer on the beaches of Brazil :-).

Back to my newspaper dilema. The boys had a suggestion: every morning I can grab my ipad, walk out to our street where the printed newspaper would normall be, smell the neighborhood, and hit the download button.