In Journalism, There Has Always Been A

The Same People Who Tell Us That Smoking Doesn't Cause Cancer Are Now Telling Us That Advertising Cigarettes Doesn't Cause Smoking.

We Continually Want To Unmask Our Heroes As If There Were More To Be Learned From Their Nakedness Than From Their Choice Of Clothing.

I Am A Member Of A Small, Nearly Extinct Minority Group, A Kind Of Urban Lost Tribe Who Insist, In The Face Of All Evidence To The Contrary, On The Sanctity Of Being On Time. Which Is To Say That We On-timers Are Compulsively, Unfashionably Prompt, That There Are Only Handfuls Of Us In Any Given City And, Unfortunately, We Never Seem To Have Appointments With Each Other.

I Am A Political Recidivist. An Incorrigible, Repeat Voter. A Career Lever-pusher. My Electoral Rap Sheet Is As Long As Your Arm. Over The Course Of Three Decades, I Have Voted For Presidents And School Board Members. I Have Voted In High Hopes And High Dudgeon. I Have Voted In Favor Of Candidates And Merely Against Their Opponents. I Have Voted For Propositions Written With Such Complexity That I Needed Noam Chomsky To Deconstruct Their Meaning. I Have Been A Single-issue Voter And A Marginal Voter. I Have Even Voted For People Who Ran Unopposed. Hold An Election And I'll Be There.

Age Is An Accumulation Of Life And Loss. Adulthood Is A Series Of Lines Crossed.