Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space. |

Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.

The sun is simply glorious. The rug by the front door is dappled with sunlight and one of the cats has found the perfect spot and is stretched out for maximum sun exposure. The other cat, Maddie, and the dog are in here with me on the couch. It is their morning nap time. The house is chilly. It was 63˚ when I came downstairs. Given my druthers, I would rather have lolled under the warm covers for a bit longer but Gracie was impatient to go outside so I got up, put on my sweatshirt and followed her downstairs. I let her out and put the coffee on. My day had started in the same way it always does.

I don’t yelp anymore so my back is finally on the mend. I have decided not to fall again. My luck can’t go on forever. Luck? I’m talking broken bones and a commercial of me yelling.”Help, I can’t get up.”

I have been sitting here for the longest time and have deleted several paragraphs which led me nowhere. I can’t seem to get a handle on anything today. Maybe I should nap with Gracie on the couch.

Folding maps is a disappearing skill. GPS now takes us everywhere, but it tends to take us directly. I don’t have a GPS system. I am still a card-carrying member of the meandering travel club. I prefer old, once well-traveled turnpikes. Let me drive through small towns and stop at local places for lunch. I have all the time I need to get from one place to another. If a shop or store catches my eye, my car turns right into the parking lot. My mother and I used to ride around to see what we might find. We stopped at antique shops and once had lunch in an old house turned into a restaurant. I think we ate in the living room. Those were the best rides.

Breaking news is on local TV right now. The Quincy Police have arrested and turned over to federal agents a man related to the marathon bombing probe. The station has shown the same films over and over and described them in the same way. My favorite film is of the front door of the apartment building where a woman in a white coat carrying a blue bag gets to the door, sees the cameras, turns around and goes back downstairs. I’ve seen her do that at least six times. I just saw her do it again. My favorite interview was with a woman living two floors above the suspect. She was asked what she heard, and she gave her story about hearing bangs and seeing the swat team. The reporter then asked how she felt about the suspect living only two floors below her. Please! What did he expect her to say? We’re having a block party later.

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This entry was posted on May 30, 2014 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: back mending, brain freeze, breaking news, folding maps, GPS, lying in the sun, sunny day

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12 Comments on “Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.”

Caryn Says:

May 30, 2014 at 12:25 pm
Hi Kat,
I have not been listening to the news so now I have to go watch just to see the Blue Bag Lady.

My friend and I used to do Magical Mystery Tours. We would take the long way home from some place that was already far away just to see what was on that route.
Sometimes, if I am in a traffic jam on the highway, I will get off and drive the slow, back roads on the theory that if I have to drive 20 MPH, I might as well do it on a road where I’m supposed to be driving 20 MPH. I don’t always know where I am or where I’m going but it’s fun. Eventually I’ll get someplace that I recognize anyway so I’m never worried. It’s the Eastern seaboard. How lost can I get?

It’s sunny and pleasant up here. A bit breezy but nice. I have to mow around my newly seeded grass area before it thunders. I don’t let the lawn guys mow that part. When they did they sucked up all the little grasslings and I had to replant it all.

Enjoy the day.
- katry Says:
  
  May 30, 2014 at 12:30 pm
  Hi Caryn,
  The blue bag lady is on channel 5.
  
  I love those meandering rides, and I do the same thing. Rhode Island wasn’t the best choice as we kept ending up at the ocean. We used to have mystery rides where each person took a turn as master of ceremony deciding where to go and packing the lunch.
  
  You are right-you can’t get lost!
  
  We still have really bright sun here now but it will only be in the low 60’s all day.
  
  Enjoy the sun!
  - Caryn Says:
    
    May 30, 2014 at 3:49 pm
    Is there anything other than ocean in Rhode Island?
    JK: I know there is a weird conference center in an experimental forest belonging to the University of RI.
    I think it’s stuck in a time vortex. Cell phones don’t work there unless you stand under the giant brass chandelier that hangs outside in the port cochére. They still use typewriters for everything. No TV’s either. Very weird.
  - katry Says:
    
    May 30, 2014 at 4:21 pm
    Caryn,
    Nothing else if you take all rights which is what we did. We had gone to the mansions first then meandered home.
    
    You probably stepped into another dimension in that forest. You did say experimental.
Hedley Says:

May 30, 2014 at 1:34 pm
AAA used to rule the world with maps and trip tix – now you don’t even bother to look at a specific route, just plug it in and go, the GPS adjusts as you wander in the general direction of your destination.

Some years ago, elderly friends from “where I’m from” enjoyed their first experience of GPS and OnStar, and I gently explained that there was someone in a control room watching their car. They liked that explanation and comfortably crossed the border and visited Niagara Falls
- katry Says:
  
  May 30, 2014 at 4:26 pm
  y Dear Hedley,
  I am still a AAA member. It has a satellite registry of motor vehicles there and as the cape as one only this is a great benefit. I can cheaper movie tickets as well. Nope, no more trip tix but some other benefits I can use.
  
  That is a wonderful story!
olof1 Says:

May 30, 2014 at 2:58 pm
I’ve missed those news but then again I haven’t watched the news today.

Warm and sunny here and a low pressure is passing by on the east coast and the border line is just east to the village. So it was cloudy to the east but sunny to the west 🙂 We might get a touch of it tomorrow though with rain and thunder.

I have a gps in my mobile phone but I refuse to use it, I love getting lost by following the roads in my map from 1963 🙂 It shows villages and roads that don’t even exist any longer 🙂

Have a great day!
Christer.
- katry Says:
  
  May 30, 2014 at 4:28 pm
  Christer,
  I was on to check the weather and ran into all the other news.
  
  It is a lovely afternoon in the mid 60’s with lots of sun. I thought we were getting rain today but it didn’t show up, maybe tomorrow.
  
  I would love to get lost in the same way!
flyboybob Says:

May 30, 2014 at 10:01 pm
I am a lover of GPS. You can never get lost and if you wander off course the GPS will recalculate your route. In addition to the US satellite system which was put up by the US military in the 1970s, there is a Russians system called GLONASS and the Europeans are putting up their own satellite constellation called Galileo. If you have an iPhone, iPad 4G or other tablet with GPS capability you have a GLONASS receiver. The Chinese are also putting up their own system called BDS will be completed in 2020. All of them except GLONASS are compatible with each other.

Since the demise of The Fairness Doctrine and the rise of cable TV the news business is now mostly entertainment. Fox News is the entertainment arm of the Republican Party and MSNBC is the entertainment arm of the Democratic Party leaving CNN somewhere in the middle here in the US. The Muslims have started Al Jazeera in English to be the ‘we’re not all terrorists’ message while promoting a Palestinian State where Israel is located today. The 1976 movie ‘Network’ predicted in an over the top manner the demise of Journalism in broadcasting and the rise of news as entertainment. The days of Walter Cronkite, Ed Murrow and Fred Friendly are long gone. Now it’s a toned down version of Peter Finch screaming with a weapon, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

We are back to partly sunny skies with a slight chance of rain which is keeping the humidity up as the temperature creeps up towards 90. If we don’t get some descent rain in early June it won’t rain again until October and the draught will continue.
- katry Says:
  
  May 30, 2014 at 10:10 pm
  Bob,
  In truth I never go anywhere in this country for which I’d need a GPS. The furthest I’ve gone in months is New Hampshire and not very far up. I think if I traveled a lot I’d get one.
  
  The news I watch is just straight forward news. This happened to whomever when. It is a local station. I never watch Fox news and I watch MSNBC only if there is a huge breaking news story, but even then I tend to jump around. My channel 5 has reporters who are around forever. We joke that as soon as they are outside reporting on the weather we know they’re close to retirement.
  
  We stayed chilly today. I’m watching the Sox game, and it rained pretty heavily for a couple of innings. We didn’t get any rain down here.
  - flyboybob Says:
    
    May 30, 2014 at 11:58 pm
    I use my GPS daily driving to and from work. Mine has built in traffic alerts. It tells me if there is a traffic jam ahead and even suggests alternate routes. The unfortunate part is that displays time to the destination and in traffic it adds minutes to the ETA. This model came with lifetime map updates. It’s a fun gadget.
  - katry Says:
    
    May 31, 2014 at 9:53 am
    Bob,
    Around here I don’t really need one. I know the traffic on weekends and know what to avoid. If I were traveling, I’d love one like yours.