I read the New York Times each morning. It’s a part of the breakfast ritual. Hot coffee and the smell of printer’s ink. I depend on the regularity of these pleasures. When the paper went on strike, I suffered from constipation.

    Some of my friends prefer Newsweek. The format of a magazine is, they argue, easier to handle. It doesn’t flop all over the place, they say. Pages don’t fall to the floor. I tell them that they must have short arms. The morning news-paper is for long-armed people. It’s a little joke we share.