Little Egypt Heritage Articles eduda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver 25 February 2007 Vol 6 Issue: #06 ISBN: Pending O’siyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, “Reading” In reading my Sunday “Page of Opinion”, Ann McFeatters, a columnist, wrote that many think that the next big trend is “... the end of the written word.” She was referring to the reading of newspapers. This put me in mind of a memory. During a newspaper strike New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the funnies on the radio. This reading of the ‘funny papers’ by Mayor LaGuardia has become legendary, not only for New Yorkers, but anyone who either remembers or has heard the CD on which it appears. This CD is part of a museum exhibit to go with the art displayed. LaGuardia during a newspaper strike [1937] read the funnies over WNYC, the New York City NPR affiliate, station. Apparently this recording is used as a promotional during fund raising time. Ms McFeatters writes that ‘newspapers’ are in big trouble due to falling circulation. Her bleak and dismal words further state that the number of books published in this country is declining and that “as many as” 40 million adults in this country are “barely literate.” She blames television, video games, online graphics for mesmerizing the public. ‘Talking’ computers will be replacing written texts just like the automobile took the place of the horse and wagon. That is a frightening thought. All this scares me for a slightly different reason than Ms McFeatters. If this is true then will my ‘news’ and learning become less? Newspapers once gave me ‘news’ and opinions. Multiple newspapers gave me multiple views of ‘news’ and opinions from which I could consider myself ‘informed’. When TV News first began I thought how wonderful – I can now see and listen to my news. However, as TV News has developed into today’s media I see the filling of time and space with inane repetitious concepts and visual stimuli. Patrick Stewart, that great British actor, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise in an episode had a book – a ‘hard’ copy book – in which he relished reading because it was not on ‘screen’. I was reading that in Nashville a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence was purchased for $2.48. Not found in an attic but in a ‘thrift’ shop. [sigh]. Skip over to Burlington, North Carolina where this document will be auctioned with an opening bid of $125,000, where ‘appraisers’ estimate that it ‘could’ sell for nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Then a potential coup-de-maitre [masterstroke] was reading [again] my daily newspaper. An tragedy occurred in my neighboring city – a most young person exchanged gunfire in the early morning hours with an undercover policeman. The officer died of a single wound to the chest. As it turns out this young person has had other brushes with the law and courts and defended by a local lawyer. This lawyer had a great-grandfather who was a police officer who became the first police command to be killed in the line of duty. One of my great-grandfather’s sisters married a man with the same surname as the lawyer. There are some coincidences which make me curious enough to some day contact this lawyer to see if he truly is a ‘cousin’. Television doesn’t give me near the details newspapers do, so I don’t want to give up my newspapers. And, if I can read more than one large newspaper everyday, I can get more than one side to any story. This only improves my thinking processes. That is what I like. If “The Little Flower” were here to read the Sunday Comics over the radio I would again listen to him as I read all the other newsworthy events printed in my daily newspaper. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-WI NV-WA-do-hi-ya NV-WA-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- 615 PostScript: "Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives ..." Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus http://www.who2.com/fiorellolaguardia.html http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#laguardia Archived articles: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=ilmassac