...every day when I was out of town recently for two weeks. Yes, I subscribe to both. Yes, he'd be happy to pick them up from the front doorstep every day while I was out of town, he said.

I fully expected him to love the feel of the printed paper in his hands, to love the stories you don't expect to be interested in until your eye happens to find them on the page, all that. He's 27. And he did what he said he would do: He carefully picked them up every day. But then he did something crazy! He saved them in a paper bag for me, still in their wrappers, and handed them to me when I got back, all nice and tidy.

As if anyone wants a two-week-old print issue of any day's newspaper. (Useless fact: Seattle Timeses are stolen much more frequently from my front stoop than New York Timeses.)

When I asked: "Wait—you didn't read them?" He said, "Oh, I read them online. It's just easier."