News as measured by quantity rather than quality
Call it a question of perspective. CBC announced that during November next the country will have a visit from Chuck ‘n The Missus. That is my new high water mark for a slow news day.
Things have changed from my first visit to a real newsroom, where a line of teleprinters kept up a spew of paper, punctuated with bells and other machinal noises. Pick the machine, stare and read the state of affairs in real time. I’m sure those machines also carried stories with the import of a royal “intention to visit”, but the sheer mass of trivia was hidden from the casual reader. Editors protected us from the ordinary.
Now, not only do the online (and print) media outlets keep up a steady trickle of data, but the reader is free to comment. In lieu of facts, a site such as CBC can provide hours of entertainment for those willing to “next” their way through the graffiti. Mind numbing, but revelatory in a world where we don’t get to hear the voice of the common man very often.
Certain among my immediate family are finding great amusement in looking at old pictures this evening. It would seem that I haven’t really changed very much over the last couple of decades. That’s reassuring, unless we go from the premise that I actually looked twenty years older than I should have when the original Kodak moment took place. Do I want to be as I was, or am now or will be? Sounds like a prayer I used to recite.
