What a great idea — Free Online Graph Paper — in PDF format.

Michael Kinsley, writing about decline and fall.

Some evil force is causing people to stop reading newspapers! Newspaper circulation figures, which had been drifting decorously downward for years, have started to plummet. At the current rate of decline, the last newspaper subscriber will hang up on a renewal phone call that interrupts dinner on Oct. 17, 2016. And then it will be over.

Among his recommendations to save the industry is that the government should establish

a program of newspaper circulation supports. These would be similar to the agricultural price supports that have preserved a treasured American lifestyle (working from dawn to dusk seven days a week, except for a few brief hours a day down at the diner complaining about big government and welfare chiselers). By paying newspaper publishers not to publish newspapers, the government can reduce the dangerous excess supply and preserve the beloved journalistic lifestyle (drinking at lunch, ruining the reputations of innocent Republican politicians and filling out expense reports).

He also proposes the establishment of a Strategic Newspaper Reserve.

As with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government would buy vast quantities of newspapers on the open market and store them somewhere for a rainy day (when they can be delivered sopping wet, as the newspaper industry prefers whenever possible). One possible location for the reserve might be my mother’s apartment, where there are already neat piles of newspapers dating back to Watergate that she is going to get to soon. (If you go to inspect the reserve, please don’t tell her how the 2000 election came out. She wants to be surprised.)

Lovely stuff. Reminds me of the young Michael Frayn.

… in 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

…said Churchill, is the worst form of government — except for all the others. I suppose I should be more cynical, but for me there’s always a magic about a general election. It’s the idea of a society collectively making up its mind — Hobbes’s Leviathan in reflective mood.

I voted at lunchtime today. It was a beautifully sunny day. The polling station was the village hall. I was the only voter about at that time of day (most people hereabouts seem to vote either in the morning or after work). Later on, I drove through some other villages, all basking in the sunshine. People were going about their daily business. But everyone I know has voted. And nobody knows yet (this is written at 9.17 pm) what they have decided — though the news media are full of clamorous predictions.

In about three hours we will have some idea how it’s gone. But, despite the tawdriness of some of the campaigning, this democracy is a wonderful thing, and something that we take too easily for granted. I remember wondering, as I watched news footage of people queuing to vote in Iraq a few months ago, how many of us would vote if doing so was dangerous. Or would we value our freedom more if it were threatened by thugs, terrorists and armed bigots?

Just realised (from writing a cheque) that today is 05-05-05. When I mentioned this to the kids, they looked at me pityingly. I know that look: it says “Poor Dad: he’s quite cool but a bit slow on the uptake”. Er, they’re right.