With radio and TV providing instant news flashes (OJ's trials) and the Internet filling in most of the rest, print news around here has become mostly reporting on local sports, club news, dairy princesses, advice columns, comics, crosswords, the Jumble, the classifieds (rifle for sale, won in a raffle), and ads large and small.

I get way behind on reading the paper. They pile up on one end of the kitchen table until a day or two before the recycling truck comes for paper. Then I skim through them quickly, and place them in a paper grocery bag ready to put out on the curb.

I'm reminded of Lord Beaverbrook's reply when somebody at a party asked him what he did. "I buy newsprint, process it, and sell it at a profit," he said.