Day 2

I went and did it. I ended my newspaper subscription. I'd been thinking about it for months and finally just let it expire -- instead of killing it, I just let it die on its own. (Like I did with the various spider plants and ferns I had back in the '90s when I decided, "Ick, indoor plants?")

So goodbye to a morning ritual I've been following since childhood. But, as I said before, by the time the morning paper comes, there's not much new there I hadn't already seen online. In fact, since I stay up late, often what I read the night before is more current than what shows up on my doorstep. 

Most of the paper I can get along fine without. For national and political news, editorials and op-eds, I've depended for years now on the New York Times and Washington Post. Local news I can still get online via the Trib, the Reader and Chicagoist, along with features and reviews and such. I can even get the comics online -- also an excellent skewering of the comics here.

I still have that reflex of wanting to go to the front door to get the paper first thing in the morning. On the other hand, I no longer have that anxiety of wondering whether it's been stolen, as it is at least once a week.

I'll probably still go out and pick it up on Sundays (for as long as they're still putting them out, which may not be long!)

So, being both part of the problem (the death of print media) AND the solution (living greener), I am feeling decidedly ambivalent.