Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Slice of Life: Newspaper Nuggets

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.
Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, BethAnna, Kathleen, and Deb
                    for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives

I love newspapers, and I thought when I retired, that I'd get the newspaper read every day.  It's still a "some of the time" occurrence, but since I've been sick for the past week, I've had more time to read the paper.  Here are some of my finds from the past week and why I can't give up the newspaper!

1.  Your Guide to Turkey Day TV - highlights for holiday specials from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  Tonight is Rudolph on CBS and tomorrow night NBC has Christmas in Rockefeller Center.  Thanks to Tivo, I can tape some of these for viewing while I decorate the tree.  Yep, it's December 1st, and my tree isn't up yet!
2.  The Great Gift of Reading by Frank Bruni, a piece about Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).  Include this quote from Frank in your next note to parents:  "Kids who read more get better at reading, and because they are better at reading, it's easier and more pleasurable so they read still more...Reading tugs them outside of themselves, connecting them to a wider wold and filling it with wonder.  It's more than fundamental.  It's transformative."
3.  The Most Colorful Time of the Year - Meghan Cox Gurdon's guide to books of the season.  Can't wait to pick up Oskar and the Eight Blessings from the library when it arrives on my holds shelf.
4.  A recipe for Muffin Tin Quiches 
5.  Portland Style, a guide to shopping in Portland (OR).  Sara and I are headed there for a mother daughter getaway later this month
6.  Looking for ground cover?  Try paving stones by Ciscoe Morris - I'm never sure why I read these (not a gardener, but my daddy was).  But in this article I discovered this tidbit:  "...the only maintenance required to keep the surface looking great is an occasional vinegar spray to prevent weeds from coming up in the cracks between the stones."  Now I need to email Ciscoe about the proper ratio of water to vinegar.  
7.  The New York Times Magazine - I'm still sad every week when I turn to the final page and my favorite part of the magazine (the essay) is gone.  Even when I didn't have time to read the magazine, I would tear out this page for later reading.  Because that is the kind of writing I want to do when I grow up (and they took it away).  However, I still read the magazine.   I love the poems selected by Natasha Trethewey, especially this week's Ted Kooser poem, "Sleep Apnea."  This week's On Clothing pays homage to the winter hat - "...is it possible to find a way to wear one that isn't ridiculous?"  And the Letter of Recommendation, "Kitchen Timer" commends the timer as a tool of time management.  Life can be measured into pomodoros (25 minute chunks)!

And now I ask, are those the kinds of things I could have found online?  Perhaps, but probably not.  That's why I still pick up the newsPAPER to be delighted by the odd find, to be sustained in my ongoing search to master my time, to read a poem, peruse a book review, or find a recipe.  And now I must close this post for I still have The Book Review, Sunday Review, and the Travel section from Sunday's paper calling to me from my unread newspaper stack!

10 comments:

  1. I've stopped all the paper, but sometimes travel to the store to get the Sunday Times, Ramona. Usually I just read the feeds from different ones. Thanks for your 'picks' today. I will 'click' on a few!

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  2. What a variety! This is why I will never give up the Sunday New York Times!

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  3. We still get our paper but not sure why. We don't have near the information that is available to you! Thanks again for complimenting my dimples! I wish I could make this :) have them!

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  4. Growing up I became a better reader laying on my stomach in the middle of the living room. I held up my head by pressing my pointer fingers over my ears. I lived in a small farmhouse with 6 other family members. It was noisy and i wasn't a good enough reader to concentrate.
    Today we still get the paper, but our local paper is now published on 3 days a week. I miss the every day habit.

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  5. For sure I love the newsPAPER and I love books with pages to turn especially from the library when I know others have read the same story as me.

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  6. I have always loved, loved, loved the newspaper. A couple of years ago I stopped getting it every day, because it just didn't come early enough for me to get it read. I still miss it!

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  7. Loved reading about your finds in the newsPAPER! I rarely page through one these days, but you reminded me of the treasures to be found, and I could feel the slower, calmer pace of it all. Thanks for the RIF quote. I will definitely be referencing it! Feel better!

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  8. I just loved your musings in this post, Ramona. I tweeted out your #2 to my favorite educational chat groups to read. (Quick Question: Will you offer your autumn tree collage with a poem for Autumn's Palette Gallery?)

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  9. There is just something that makes the day start when you can drift through a newspaper. We continue to get ours daily too.

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  10. I still get my Sunday editions of the papers and the NYT Sunday edition is read a little bit all week long. I used to read the paper every morning until my son got sick and life got crazy but one of the nicest compliments I received from my oldest son was that his motivation to read was always seeing me read the paper, books, magazines etc and that the paper and books were always lying around ready to be piked up. Ramona, I hope you will consider contributing to my Senior Salon Wednesdays.

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