The Decline of Print Media (A Long Rant)

I feel a rant comin' on! Am I the only person to notice that newspapers and magazines aren't what they once were? I love to read the paper in the morning. I read it and do the puzzles. It wakes my brain up. I like finding out what is going on in the world AND locally.

We get the Mpls StarTribune (STRIB). Lately I have begun to suspect that it is being written by college interns. I am tired of reading an article and wondering, "What do you suppose they MEANT to say here?". There are egregious typos and errors in usage. (Does the paper not have spell-check?) Maps are misprinted and never corrected. They dumped the "mistake correction" department ages ago, so all mistakes stand as the truth unless it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Most of the news comes straight off the wire service. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it seems the other papers still have spell check and use words of more than two syllables. It does mean however, that someone has picked what THEY think we want for news. It's the local news that takes the biggest hit. It leans on opinion columns and police blotters. On Mondays, they combine the "world" and "local" sections into one section now. I know things are tough all over, but the paper is at least half advertising. I want NEWS.

My definition of what IS news is also apparently different from the world's definition. Paul says most people are getting their news on-line now, so I looked online. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but the newspaper's website has even less news than the paper. It just skims the highlights, and does not put up all new content daily, so you don't know what's new news and what's old news.

Remember when Saturday Night Live had "Short Attention Span Theater"? That's what we have going on here. Not just Minnesota, but world wide. There was a morning news program we saw on vacation in England several years ago called "The Bigger Breakfast". It was just quick news headlines, leaning heavily towards celebrity gossip. Paul and I laughed, hah! "news" for 16 year olds! Now that's all any of us have. Look at the MSN homepage. Celebrity gossip and speculation.

Journalists used to strive for unbiased reports of things which have actually happened. Opinions were welcomed on the opinion pages. Speculation on news events was limited and limited to actual experts on the topics. Now it's all blurry as to what is fact and what is opinion. The Strib slants left, I know. If my news is going to slant, I at least want it to slant my direction.

Do you recall some time ago when the big news of the day was that Ashton Kutcher had more Twitter followers than CNN? I weep for the future. What Ashton had for breakfast should not be important to anyone but Ashton!

Magazines are losing content as well. One magazine I get has recently combined several similar publications into one. To serve me better. Yeah. Or to publish a magazine with half the staff. If I wanted to subscribe to a 4-wheelin' magazine, I would have done so! Also, I do notice when I used to get 12 issues and now I get 6 for the same (or higher) price.

Book publishing may soon be a thing of the past as well. It is so much cheaper to sell books online that there may be no more bookstores! I saw an episode of "Star Trek - The next Generation" one time that showed Capt. Picard reading an actual book and explaining to an amused first officer that he liked real books better than ones on computer. I thought, "That'll never happen!", but it's looking like paper books will be as obsolete as 8 track tapes. Just like most people now buy their music on-line, we'll be buying books the same way. We won't have a choice.

Like we didn't have a choice in the Hi-def TV switchover. I do not find it to be an improvement. After purchasing new tvs, converter boxes and antennas, I do NOT GET BETTER RECEPTION! I lose a lot of the sound to digital hiccups. My friend Mary Ann now has to put her TV in the middle of the floor and hold onto the antenna if she wants to watch FOX "News" (don't get me started). All those extra free channels we now get? Cartoons, hymn singing and one channel that never seems to have anything on it except a show in which bikini-clad women tour zoos. (Ion-life, channel 41-3). This is not better. Don't spit in my face and tell me it's raining!

Whew! Sorry, but I feel better! I have been reading "Julie and Julia". It is pretty good. It's about a woman who cooks every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I looked at my copy of the cookbook. This is a book about doing things the hard way. I would not be able to cook all those recipes without changing them. I wouldn't cook the yucky sounding ones at all. I try not to make nasty food on purpose! Anyway, Julie fights through the whole chapter on aspic. Aspic is meat (or fish) jello. Ick. This week I made tomato juice jello. It wasn't bad, actually, in a June Cleaver's bridge luncheon kind of way. As I tasted it, I was thinking it was like eating a Bloody Mary with a spoon. Then it hit me! Bloody Mary Jello shots! Genius! That would really liven up a brunch, wouldn't it? I'll give you the June Cleaver version and mine.

Molded Tomato Salad

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 tbls worcestershire sauce.
Spicy Buttermilk Dressing (recipe follows)

Soften gelatin in water. While it is softening, combine rest of ingredients (except dressing) in a pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add gelatin, stir until gelatin dissolves. Pour into a pretty jello mold and chill until set. Unmold and serve with buttermilk dressing.

Spicy Buttermilk Dressing
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp chopped parsley or cilantro
2 tsp tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
Combine ingredients to make 2 cups dressing.


Bloody Mary Jello Shots

2-3 envelopes unflavored gelatin (see note)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup each finely chopped onion and celery
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 1/2 cups Bloody Mary mix
1 cup vodka
Pickles, olives, pickled jalapenos as desired for garnish

Soften gelatin in water. (Note: use 2 envelopes gelatin if making shots in little plastic cups. Use 3 if you will cut it up into Knox-blox like squares). Simmer onion, celery, celery seed and Bloody Mary mix for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add gelatin stirring until dissolved. Add vodka. Pour into little plastic cups or a pan that will give you one or one and a half inch squares of jello. Put a slice of pickle, olive or jalapeno on top, shoot away.