Monday, February 12, 2007

On the frailties of life....

It wasn't until I was in the eighth grade that I really took an interest in the newspaper. Of course there were the headline, the top stories, and comics, etc. But there was one column I always looked forward to reading. L. M. Boyd's trivia column. Some of you may know him as Mike Mailway. Throughout the years, the service of the local newspapers left me disgusted (multiple billings, failed deliveries), but his column was still the only reason why I still read the paper each day (that and a little bit of Garfield, too). And then one day in December of 2000, he announced his retirement. I canceled my News Tribune subscription a few months later.



Human life can be so fleeting. People you see here today can be gone tomorrow in a flash. This Christmas Eve, I was overnighting at my Grandmother's house. When I went to bed that night, the thoughts were of joy and happiness. When I got up the next morning, the first headline I see was James Brown passing away. Then Gerald Ford went the same way, too. A couple of weeks later Saddam Hussein snuffed it. And then last week, Anna Nicole Smith passed on.



Why am I saying this? Because I just found about L. M. Boyd's passing (obit here). Forget Ann Landers, or Dear Abbey. He was my favorite. Now that he's gone, I have no other reason to read newspapers (there are a whole bunch of other ways to get the news, like google, for instance).

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