The Hartford Courant

I was unpacking some things that came into my warehouse this morning. I always check out the newspapers people use as stuffing to see where they came from. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of sections from The Hartford Courant.

Everyone is protective, proud and provincial to a degree. New Englanders like to think they aren't, but they are. Nearly every bit as much so as the Texans that surround me. Texans are legendary for being proud about Texas, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

But, being from the Hartford area, I still take pride in The Courant. The front page announces The Courant as "America's oldest, continually published newspaper." To me, this is the paper I learned to read with. I remember being 5 years old, walking up our driveway (3/10ths of a mile) to get it, walking back to sit on the porch and pour over the Yankee's box scores. I learned to read Murcer, Clark, Kenney, Tresh, Mantle and Stottlemeyer before attending school. Everyday I followed the adventures of Dondi, Beetle Bailey and Marmaduke. And there will never be a columnist like Bill Lee and his With Malice Toward None. Whenever I go home to visit family, I enjoy picking up The Courant and reading a small-town paper with big paper quality. The writing is good, grammar impeccible and the photos charming. Somehow it seems friendlier than the giant Dallas Morning News and its reams of classifieds.

So, thanks to whoever packed that up. It must've been recycled because the package came from NY.