'Dry January' and the slow death of a newspaper

Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash

First of all, I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Ours was a mixed blessing. We both got sick with a cold/flu virus and, unable to celebrate with family, spent Christmas hunkered down in our San Antonio apartment. We were able to meet and exchange gifts a few days later with my son and family, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Something else happened during the holidays. My relationship with alcohol has now changed. After enjoying a glass or two of wine most nights before dinner for decades (I’ve lost track, to be honest), I’ve found in the last few weeks that alcohol of any amount triggers migraines. Even half a glass of cabernet begets misery. I’m at a loss as to why this intolerance has surfaced during my 68th year on the planet. It’s a function of aging, no doubt, but beyond that no one seems to know for sure.

So I am now a participant in “Dry January,” so named for those who reevaluate their relationship with alcohol and abstain after overconsumption during the previous month’s revelries. But my consumption did not change over the holidays, and I’m not participating out of self-righteousness or some sort of acknowledgement that I’m a drunk. I just don’t care much for pile-driving headaches and popping Advils. So there. Buy stock in Coca Cola because henceforth, I will be Fresca’s most loyal customer.

And how ironic that this has happened just as my friend and former Lakeville Journal colleague Patrick Sullivan celebrates 25 years of sobriety in typical offbeat fashion:

The slow death of a newspaper

Union Station Train Depot in Waterbury, Connecticut, home of the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress

As I noted earlier, I didn’t feel like doing much over the holidays, but I did regain enough strength to write a column for CTNewsJunkie about our local daily newspaper in Connecticut, the Republican American of Waterbury.

The Rep-Am, as it’s known, is locally owned by a single family, and like many other papers in that category, it struggled to make ends meet and has resorted to selling to a big chain (Hearst) that will no doubt strip it down, eliminate most of its local coverage and lose a shit-ton of subscribers in the process.

I have not always agreed with the Rep-Am’s staunchly right-wing editorial and op-ed pages, but I will miss the news coverage that reports without fear or favor and holds local and state officials to account. I give a few examples in the column.

No paywall:

Sale Of Waterbury Newspaper A Sad Ending To A Great Tradition -CTNewsJunkie

I’m making a brief trip to North Carolina next week to see an old friend and take in a Duke basketball game. I will see you here in this space before then.