Dysfunctional Reporting

We get pretty starved for real news in this house. The kind you can only find in a real newspaper. Sure, we have newspapers here, but they're not real. They're some sort of small town mutation of journalism. You can read extensively about who visited who, who died, who was arrested and who won the girls sophomore basketball tournament in your county and when and where all the bored housewives clubs are to meet next . That's it. No world news. As far as the papers in this county are concerned the biggest natural disaster to hit this century was a string of tornados that tore through here a couple of years ago. There has never been a tsunami in Missouri, so the average person feels disconnected from the whole issue. It's too surreal.

I have to give them credit for the 9/11 disaster. They are still showing reruns. I caught it around 5 am, right after the in depth interview with the plastic surgeon that recently introduced Botox to the locally affluent.

I was fortunate enough to have a Las Vegas newspaper find its way into my hands this month. In it I found many interesting items.
Palestinians welcomed freed prisoners.
It told of the Lebanese protest of Syrian dominance.
Kitty clone Peaches and her DNA donor, Mango made the front page as well. Wow, if I chose to spend my retirement funds...all of them...I could have one of my flea factories duplicated. How fascinatingly Beverly Hills-ish.

I even discovered that one of my nieces friends is holding her own in a Las Vegas show at the T.I. and on a television show called American Idol. The show is not available here, but the redneck counter-part, The Nashville Star does get plenty of coverage(I'm not complaining, I like that show).

The item I found of the greatest interest, as I have been sick since November, was the article on the avian flu pandemic approaching. It seems that poultry in Asia have been dropping from an influenza with an ability to rapidly mutate. It's highly adaptable and will soon develop into a world-wide killer of the human species. At present the mortality rate is about 72 percent of identified patients (That was back in February).

I had chickens. I've had all sorts, in different States. In California I lived in a high desert valley where chickens were wiped out often, including mine. A chicken with sinusitis is a sad sight. Their little sinuses swell up so big it looks like their little faces are going to pop. I really don't want to see people in that state. Especially not myself. Oh wait, I AM in that state.
Leaves a person to wonder if it isn't already here. I have never been so sick, for so long before. I felt like my face was going to pop many times. Lucky for my housemate with the weak stomach, it hasn't yet.

While I feel informationally starved, I must appreciate at the same time, the simplicity of this life. I dreamt of it for years and through many miles of traffic jams, which is something I not so grudgingly gave up to make the transformation to midwest farm life. So bring on the bake sales and the small town papers! This is still heaven!
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3/10/2005 11:24 PM