November 4, 2008

Aaack! It's another one!

He caught me at the right time.
I'd been feeling guilty for my self-administered ignorance.
I knew I was uninformed and was now contemplating action.
The proposed remedy fit my abilities ... I could do it...

I could subscribe to the paper!

Just for the weekend editions, mind you. Getting it everyday is information overload for me. It simply takes too long to even just skim the material. And sometimes I don't want to -- sometimes it is easier, and more emotionally sane, to remain ignorant.

Plus, it was only $12 for two months. Not much to pay for enlightenment, huh?

But there was a catch...

"Can I have them deliver it every day, for free?" The man looked at me like he was giving me the deal of a life time.

"No!" I began to panic. I had done that once before and swore never to take the paper that way again.

I tried to save face: "Isn't that pretty cost inefficient?"

It turns out that they can charge their advertisers more if they have a larger reader base. Regardless of whether or not I read it, it pays them to have it land on my driveway.

I gave up. "Sure," I said with trepidation. "You can deliver it ... (choke!) ... every day."

It has been a week. Yesterday morning I sat down to four unopened papers. I made it through three of them and dumped the last one right out of it's plastic into the recycling bin (with only a moment's concern that there might be something in there I would have wished to have known).

Call me what you will, but I now remember why I ran from the fellow at the grocery store who wanted to give me a $20 gift card for subscribing last year.

I guess I was a sucker this go-around.

It was all about timing -- the election, the economy, having just moved, upcoming holiday sales -- lots of information deficits.

Hopefully my recycling bin is getting informed.

2 comments:

Pemblemily said...

I've done the very same thing. For a while there I had a VERY well informed recycling bin! I finally canceled my subscription, saying I'd keep up in my own time by reading news online. Unfortunately, my time is not my own, (Most of it belongs to J!) and I'm feeling the information deficit lately.

Micah Olson said...

Not like the news papers offer any real information anyway.