I'm a Junkie

The beautiful lobby of the L.A. Times building.  Courtesy of Ilpo's Sojourn, Wikimedia Commons.

Tori thinks I have a problem.  I think it's under control.  I'm talking about my compulsion to read every inch of the Los Angeles Times everyday.  I'm not one of those people who goes on vacation and signs up for the newspapers to be donated to a local school.  I like for them to be held for me so that when I get home I can make sure that I haven't missed anything.  I don't actually read every inch, but I do read almost every article and I have to scan every headline and first paragraph to make sure I'm not missing something important.

Naturally, I feel attached to the writers.  Or at least I think that's only natural.  I have a funny habit of reading the headline and testing myself to see whether I guess the reporter.  I can't always get it right because of course these days writers don't always stick to a certain beat, but I'm pretty familiar with most of the names.

Today was very special because I was given a tour by a reporter who I've worked with on a few stories (part of my job is media relations).  She was kind enough to spend two hours showing me around the building and introducing me to people whose bylines I've been reading for several years now.  At one point she said hi to a guy we passed in the hallway named Ralph and I asked her if that was Ralph so-and-so.  She thought that was so funny that I knew who he was and so whenever she introduced me to people she'd say, "She's a total Times junkie -- she even recognized Ralph so-and-so!"  And then the other person would usually make a joke about how there's probably only a total of three Times junkies out there.

Everyone seemed bemused that people were actually reading and appreciating their work since I think they've been operating under such a difficult situation with so much criticism about a degraded product (which is only natural given the changes in the industry).  They seemed surprised they even had any fans left, which made me want to start a Times appreciation society. Then again, I'm definitely the only 35-year-old I know who gets it delivered to her doorstep every morning.

Anyway, it was a really wonderful day and the only thing that would have been better is if I would have actually taken a photo on my big day.  I even got to crash their holiday potluck party, which was great!