Tag: general grumbling

And the hits just keep on coming.

Thanks, Oregonian, for getting rid of three days of home delivery, the movie critic, the music critic, the theater critic, so many other things I’m too mad about to remember right now.  Thanks also for getting rid of the Desk, the column that watches out for consumers.  What, were you afraid that we might report our formerly quality newspaper to its own consumer complaint column?

This would all go so much better if you would just admit you are giving us a lesser product. 

How I used to read the paper seven days a week:  a bundle of a paper was delivered to my doorstep and I read it.
How I will read the paper 3 of seven days per week:  supposedly on my tiny phone.
 

Except the stupid digital version doesn’t work on my phone.  That blue square is where the content is supposed to be.  You know, because we are calling it “content” now, not “news”.
 

My desk.

I’m writing this more than a month after I snapped the picture of this article/headline and I’m still annoyed.  I understand that teenagers feel like everyone is watching them.  It’s a developmental stage and they grow out of it.  I have much less patience for adults who think the world is their audience, when the world could care less.  Either wear the two-piece or don’t, but don’t inflict your psychodrama on the rest of us.  Geez.

I’m quibbling here with the term “inner-city.”  I know by “inner-city” they are using shorthand to describe the bad part of town where opportunities are few and mostly people of color live.  That place, when Mitchell Jackson was growing up in Portland was not the inner city, it was in Northeast Portland.  Inner city is over by the Keller Auditorium and is rather nice today, and then.

“This sticker will save up to 100lbs of paper something something something.”

What the hell does that mean?  How do they quantify that?  Where is their data? When I see this sticker, I sometimes want to use more paper towels, not fewer.  Do they factor obstinance into their sticker calculations?

Kristyn Schiavone is a new-ish fashion columnist in our paper and I’m on the fence about whether I like her or not.  Cons:  she’s not local (she seems to be out of Chicago), her writing style is a bit too “sorority girl” for me, and she’s quite peppy.  Granted, those last two might be a given with fashion columnists.  Pros:  Um, I keep reading her?
 

But today a sentence in the article took my breath away.  Check out #4.

Only twenty dollars?  To me, a fully-employed professional, there is no “only” about a twenty dollar bill. There’s not really an “only” about a five-dollar bill in my world.  So to read that a manicure is “only” twenty dollars is pretty jarring.  I think columnists/commentators make this mistake a lot.  They think that all their readers are in the same demographic as they are.  It’s not a good thing.