Once upon a time Newsday was a great newspaper, the NY Times in tabloid garb for people on Long Island, and for several years with aspirations of becoming a 4th paper in New York.
Well, not any more. Roiled by a scandal over inflated circulation and dragged down by one staff cut after another after another, the paper's become a shell of its former self, a newspaper without any news. And now another 120 people are disappearing, including 25 more editorial staff.
I used to buy this paper every day. When I started JABberwocky in 1994 I switched to reading at the library to save a few bucks, but if I had to buy it on any given day, no problem. Now, it's not worth the fifty cents. Never.
Sadly, this is a situation that's coming up more and more, as newspapers confront plummeting print ad revenue and the ability of the web to provide information. One reason I can afford not to buy Newsday is that I can use the Daily Comics widget on my Mac Dashboard to get my comics, and that's about 25% of the newspaper reading time I don't need the newspaper for.
But should reading the funnies ever be 25% of my newspaper time? I am a confirmed newspaper addict, and I don't want to buy a newspaper. I don't imagine the solutions to the industry's problems are easy ones, but if the best they can come up with is to stop giving even their most addicted customers a reason to use each day...
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Have you played Atari today
I'm not, I don't think, one of those addictive personalities, but if there's one thing that's always been able to put me away for hours it's Super Breakout.
So tonight I went to the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Museum of the Moving Image, terribly underdressed in my work-at-home clothes surrounded by politicos in suits, and kind of wondering why I bothered. But after the ceremony, roaming the gallery and new since the last time I'd been on the 3rd floor (because when you're a member, and you go all the time, you never actually go; I go to see a movie, see it, leave) was an old arcade Super Breakout, and there I was, young again, boppin' away on my 2600.
I wasn't very happy at first. The high score was 180, and I wasn't coming close. The bonus came at 400. But of course, an addiction is an addiction is an addiction, and I kept hitting for a new game, and slowly but surely the Super Breakout skills started to come back. I finally got the high score, and decided to walk away. But then I got around ten steps and turned back, because I hadn't gotten my 400 for the bonus game... After I got myself a 500 and had proven I could still bring my game to the Super Breakout paddle, I finally tore myself away. I'm still a little surprised I didn't keep hitting that new game button until every politico had left, and they had to drag my away.
This is why I like it that I have one of those 2000-era Atari in-a-controller emulators. And this is why I never actually turn it on. Because once I start in on that Super Breakout, I ain't stopping. This is also why it's not always a good idea for me to have Entenmann's holiday pop-ems, M&Ms or Doritos hanging around in large quantities.