Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A bad lead-in

I just came in from repotting a plant on my front porch. While I was outside a cute, clean-cut teenage girl approached my house.

The first thing she said was, "I'm not trying to sell you candy."

She went on to explain how she was trying to raise money for college tuition, and pulled a laminated card from her back pocket that had a paragraph on the front I didn't bother to read and a Colorado State University logo at the bottom.

I turned the card over. On the back were pictures of our local daily newspapers.

She would have been better off trying to sell me candy. Even if it wasn't a scam (which it most likely was), printed news is dead in our household. We prefer to cherry-pick what we read online, and I have no interest in bundling old papers for the recycling bin. We've even let subscriptions to Time and National Geographic lapse. The spousal unit still picks up The Economist on occasion, but the rest of our news is all virtual.

But I still felt bad when she walked away. She looked awfully sweet and was quite polite when I turned her down.

6 comments:

BeckEye said...

If someone walks up to me and says "I'm not trying to sell you candy," my response will be, "then what the hell good are you?"

Megan said...

I was just talking to my brother-in-law about this. He still reads the LA Times, cover to cover, every day.

If I got the newspaper, I'd do the crossword and trash the rest. Not the best use of the medium...

Slave to the dogs said...

Beckeye, that's the best response ever! Thought about doing improv?

Megan, thanks for stopping by! Obviously there are plenty of people out there who read the paper but I'm not one of them. Good point though, online crosswords don't sound very satisfying.

Pugs said...

Screw her. She probably will use the money to get drunk at the frat parties anyway...

Slave to the dogs said...

Pugs, I wouldn't begrudge her that seeing I did my fair share of it at UNM.

Pugs said...

I know, I was there, LOL. You sorority sluts are all the same! Ha ha ha