I tried to forgo the ink/paper version of the NYTimes for a couple of years, as well as t/WSJ. I did this four a couple of years. It worked ok but ultimately fell short for me.

When I read the online version, and I even tried the odd Times Reader, I was absolutely certain that I read everything I absolutely had to read.

Except I didn’t.

For me, it all came down to the NYTimes’ Metropolitan Diary. When I read the paper online, I never read the Metropolitan Diary on Monday eventhough it’s “there” on the tube and readily available. When I ready the inky version of the newspaper, I always, always, always read the Metropolitan Diary and inevitably clip it and send it to a dear friend who also lives beyond the pale, out in NYC’s diaspora.

With the Wall Street Journal, I’ll end up reading the political reporting in the inky edition and never read it on the tube.

Another angle in on this is whether or not the medium is “actionable.” So, when I read something on the tube, I can clip it and paste it and link it and send it and comment on it and del.icio.us it and it all ends up in some sort of metaflow/life that’s aggregates on Facebook or whatever. And that’s a good thing. I like it.

However, I have this little piece of red plastic I acquired from Levengers and it has a barb on it and it slices newspaper with made skills. And I know how to tear a newspaper page. It has a grain to it and I.F.Stone always tore apart his newspapers to make them … actionalable. And pieces of the newspaper are sometimes folded around a correspondence card, sealed in an envelope and tossed into the bluemetal maw of the USPS and it goes bobbing along on the waves until it reaches the clean sandy shore of a friend. And I think about how it’s a little present, prssent, it has substance and texture and may even have an odd aroma to it and the stamps are little pieces of art too. It is present, a real thing.

Now, I like trees as much as anyone else. I think it’s terrific that tress make the air breathable for us and it is truly a blessing to rest in the shade of a tree on a hot day. (And I never climbed trees but am the father of two girls who do.) So, I believe the trees deserve a break.

But I can’t read the tube (yet) when I’m on the train and I learned newspaper origami to make the broad sheet slender so I can read it on the R train from Queens to midtown without breeching my neighbor’s space.

I don’t like how the ink stains my fingertips, but it washes off and given that this is the worst of the occupational hazards I face every day, it isn’t so bad.

And what about the crossword?

Anyway, I admire you (as usual) for showing us the way and all of the above is my excuse for lingering in the back of the pack.