April Showers can be White!

Flirtatious: "If I said, 'I like your eyebrows?'  Would you hold them against me?"

Real Mood: Adrift

Prediction:  I may not be able to accomplish this, but all Western State Mountain reservoirs will hold their water this summer.

As we last EAVESDROPPED on our BLOGSTER, phinos, his sanity was being questioned. Did he return to planet earth? Will his ramblings find some focus. 

Let's return now to the scene. Is that him sitting there on the porch shaking his newspaper like a fan in the middle of snowdrift? It doesn't look good.  Let's move in closer and see if we can't hear what he seems to be mumbling.

I'm not sure it's a good thing. Sighlemaccaba understands me. And, at least on the surface, tends to empathize with me. Read her response to my last entry and you'll see what I mean.

I've been talking to one of my former students, Elena Brown, about mainstream media shooting itself in the collective foot. 

(Elena is a flight attendant for that airline that went into bankruptcy, got rid of it's retirement obligations, fired a bunch of veterans, and now that it's out of bankruptcy?  Is hiring a sea of new employees for a dime an hour. Almost none of which is relevant to the topic.)

So Elena, like many airline employees, rides the bus to the airport to avoid a lot of hassle.  The transporation district has even kept that route running during the transporation strike going on here.  Problem is? Because of the strike, and so many cars on the road?  The Sky Ride is packed and some employees are not getting to work on time.  And if they do? I get the impression from Elena they get there cranky. So Elena is asking me?

"Paul, why isn't the news covering the strike impact on the airport?"

I thought about it for a millisecond and then let my synapses fly.

"Elena, in essence they've given up.  They no longer do anything in depth. They leave that STUFF up to the websites. There are a few vestigal attempts, but I'm seeing fewer and fewer newspaper sidebars or radio and TV features and documentaries."

"Just give me the facts maam! And then we gotta move on!"

I don't even know if I'm right about this, but it's my gut level sense that mainstream media has neither the time, resources nor inclination to compete with the BLOGGERS, WEBSITES, PODCASTERS, ETC. What's your impression?

And speaking of newspapers. Knowing they've got web competition? If they still want to cut down trees and throw papers on our front porches or driveways every morning?

PUT THOSE PAPERS IN PLASTIC WRAP THAT DOESN'T LEAK. DON'T LOOK AT A DRIVEWAY WITH AN INCH OF SNOW ON IT AND THINK IT IS OKAY TO JUST TOSS THE HARDWORK OF JOURNALISTS, EDITORS AND PRINTERS RIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE OF IT.

IT'S WAY TOO EASY FOR ME TO GO GET MY NEWS FROM blahblahtimes.com. (wouldn't it be fun if that's a real site? I think I'll go check, and if I have something to report you're going to read about it.)

TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO SEE IF PAUL HAS STOPPED BOUNCING OFF THE WALL. WILL HE TOUCH TERRA FERMA IN TIME FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF Paul'sModestMusings? DON'T BE THE LAST TO KNOW. APRIL 28TH IS NOT VERY FAR AWAY.

i've been looking at the snow reports and the "abominable snowpack man" is going to have to eat his fluff. he predicts a rough dry summer for parts of the state? looks to me like most of the state will be under water this summer. 5 bucks says he measures again and changes his tune.