As fewer and fewer people are buying print newspapers, it is getting harder and harder to find a copy when you want one. Especially if you're looking for a specific paper like the Sunday New York Times. John sent me a link to a recent article on Curbed about why it's so hard to buy a copy of the Sunday Times. Most bodegas and delis don't carry it anymore. Even Starbucks doesn't. John lives in Ridgewood, Queens, and I've walked miles unsuccessfully to find a Times on a Sunday morning when I've been cat-sitting at John's apartment.

Recently, I've been getting my Times at the local Wegmans when I'm at home in western New York State. It's usually reliable but yesterday was the second time in a couple months they didn't have one for me. A few weeks ago, they didn't get any of the New York City papers. Yesterday, they got a short shipment and were sold out by 9:15 or so when I got there. I was sore distressed since it was my first Sunday with duty at the library and I didn't have the rest of the day to drive off somewhere else (Bath, Corning, Geneseo, Ithaca, Rochester) to find a copy. I called the Top's Friendly Market in Bath. They still had a copy and put one aside for me.

I set off for Bath after my morning walk on Monday morning, to get the reserved paper and then to stop in Hornell for a dose of pancakes at Billy Schu's in Hornell. I walked up to the customer service desk at Top's with confidence and asked for my Times. The clerk looked at the small stack of reserved papers and there was no Times. Yikes. She called for assistance from someone else who said he'd just taken the unsold Times (they had extras!!) to the back room to be written off and discarded. Maybe he could still find a clean copy. And thank heavens he could.

So I hugged my Sunday Times and headed back toward Hornell. Billy Schu's was closed for Labor Day. Oh, well, the big triumph was getting the paper and there was even a special Design section.

Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008_newsstand_NYC_USA_2453239739.jpg