Sports is on the back of Style like Voldemort on Professor Quirrell

Our newspaper routine was the bus riders would toss the paper up to the house. Now it’s out there for days sometimes. The ones that run to get the mail don’t even think to pick up because it’s not their normal job. Our routine is shot. 

We take The Washington Post way out here. It covers what we remember as "home." It's the paper that always came to my house. Yes, it's the liberal paper as opposed to the conservation Washington Times. I don't know why that's the paper that came to the house. Any news machine that has a tagline Democracy dies in darkness is cool from my journalist standpoint. All newspapers have too little news and too many opinion pieces.  

When our oldest hit high school and was enrolled in an AP Government course we knew she would need current events. We wanted the kids to have a media outlet that we all used. We don’t have a cable service; the radio doesn’t play in the home. Our house is very peaceful. Until now we’d used the internet to keep up with news, wtop.com and a few major outlets. Our local paper, that the kids are in frequently, doesn't carry world news. Our home paper, that the children are in a few times a year, doesn't carry enough world news. We went with the Post. 

It became clear that the demand for the paper was Section D, Sports and the comics. Also, no one knew how to read the paper. It was strewn EVERYWHERE. Threats of if we can’t pick up after ourselves, we would no longer be taking the paper crept up. Solution:

• Bring paper in
• Pull sports section
• Pull comics, fold into one piece if necessary
• Maybe set a special page out, local interest or good book list, etc.
• Lay out together on pool table for day.
• End of day, recycle paper

That’s how it’s been for a year and a half.

On March 11, 2020, the NBA season came to a screeching halt. The game the boys were going to watch wasn’t played. Other sports quickly followed suit. The Olympics are postponed until 2021. Our newspaper STOPPED HAVING SECTION D, SPORTS. It’s attached to the back of C, Style like Voldemort on the back of Professor Quirrell. They’ve tried looking for sports. They’ve tried opinion pieces. They’ve tried some useful fluff highlighting best movies by sport. Caddieshack made it for golf. Fishing was included in the sports and represented by A River Runs Through It.

The first “little” thing that changed around here, no live sports or church and school would be big things, was the loss of Section D’s own section. It is sad and much harder to present on the pool table. It seems unnatural.