One of the stories from childhood that always stuck in my head was about traditions.
In this housewife-y version of Aesop’s fables, a young girl watches her mother hack the end off the Christmas ham before placing it in the pan. The girl decides this ham-hacking must be a Very Important Part of the process.
She grows up, starts her own family and continues the ham-hackery for her own holiday celebrations.
One year, her mother is visiting. They’re chatting in the kitchen when the now-grown daughter grabs the cleaver and hacks the end off the ham, just like always.
The mother is speechless for a moment, then asks, “What the heck did you do that for?”
Nonplussed, the daughter responds, “That’s just how we cook ham … right?”
A long pause.
“My dear,” her mother says, “I only cut the end off the ham because our pan was too small, and we were too poor to buy another.”
And that, my friend, is why some traditions are dumb.
Now, let’s talk about this new “Lyttle” paper. (Shout out to the Herald’s founders for always coming in clutch with random last-name puns.)
I won’t lie, I’m holding out hope for 100% positive feedback (the all-nighter next to a Xerox has made me rather attached to the mini-paper), but I’m sure there’s someone out there less than pleased with the new format, particularly since this week it’s by choice, not necessity.
Overwhelmingly, the comment I’ve heard most often from the community is that people are just happy the paper is READABLE again.
I’m thinking the tradition of a nostalgic-but-unreadable newspaper should probably go the way of ham-hacking. However, like I always say, this is not MY paper, it’s YOUR paper. Please don’t hesitate to provide your feedback as we navigate the brand-new universe of digital printership.
I promise I’ll only cry a little.