The Alewife Situation

It bothered me more than I let on with the post from last week. And so, a follow-up post.

What was most aggravating to me about the Alewife editor keeping the interview of me (featuring three of my political "Sarcastic Haiku" series) off the website until the last possible minute is that the print edition for September had already been distributed with no notable changes to content (writer Lo Gallucio was kind enough to show me the original draft and, later, apologize for the kinda lame title).

The fact that the feature was the last thing from the September issue to be posted (first day of October) really gives insight into the mind of the editor, who, it appears to me, is just trying to sell the equivalent of the real estate and personal pamphlets you see on sale in Dunkin Donuts, diners, and convenience stores once in a while. Only, he hedges his bets on making money by taking on local writers, eager to publish, who will do their part to promote the hell out of the paper.

Quite the scam he has going, presenting the illusion of a community paper like that. Oh, I'm sure he cares about the local politics, but I guarantee: If he could just publish a rag containing nothing but ads, he would do that and just spend time ranting on a blog.

The initial concern, Lo told me, was that the editor assumed I was "against the soldiers." Whenever I hear anyone bring this up, I always want to ask what soldiers they're referring to. Soldiers like my friend who threw candy to children? The ones who tortured people in Abu Ghraib? The guy who threw a grenade into a tent of his fellow soldiers? The ones coming back and speaking out against the war?

Not that this was even brought up directly, except for the reference to said friend. Had the editor read the article at all, he might have at least gathered that I don't see a lot of matters in black and white.

But no one--and I guess that really, truly means no one now-reads papers anymore.