1855 - The Sunday Papers


Instead of an image made on Tuesday, here’s another Sunday image. It’s a little unfortunate, because yesterday I was outside shortly to visit the doctor and buy some medication and food. It was a bright, cold, sunny day and it was the first day of winter. Not according to the calendar, but you know what I mean, there is always some day in the year when it feels and smells and looks like winter, when the light is clear and milky at the same time, when the sun is up and gives no warmth, when you feel that winter has begun.

I didn’t have the camera with me, made no image, and probably I wouldn’t have been able to make it come across anyway. It may have been a smell thing πŸ™‚

But back to this picture. You know, Austria is a catholic country and a country that has always been easy to rule. No revolutions around here. Contrary to other even more catholic countries like Italy, the shops in Austria have always been closed on Sundays. It’s been kind of a consensus through the whole society. Which brings up the question how Sunday papers are sold, and this is how they are. We call those bags, mounted to some fence, with something like a small saving box on top, “Stumme VerkΓ€ufer” (“mute sellers”).

I can remember them from my childhood and I can remember some people looking out of their windows, looking for people who took a newspaper without dropping money in. It was a perfect topic for rural gossip. “Have you heard? So-and-so is stealing newspapers! I’ve seen it with my own eyes!”.

Which may have been true or not. Recently I was asked if the mute sellers still exist around here and I couldn’t tell. Really, you see something all your life, something that you’re not interested in and have no use for, and you blend it away. Fact is, they do exist, only the prices have risen significantly πŸ™‚

The Song of the Day is “The Morning Papers” from Prince’s 1992 “Love Symbol” album. Hear it on YouTube. I’ve already used the song for the oversaturated atrocity that was “265 – As I Went Out For The Morning Papers”. Oh well, we all learn, do we?


There are 2 comments

Flo (tonebytone)   (2011-11-17)

Ah, in the good old U.S.A. sales continue 7 days a week - even on holidays! Stores take advantage of the fact that on holidays there are many more people who have free time to buy things, and so they hold sales, hoping to entice some of those free people to come into their stores instead of going hiking or boating or whatnot. As for selling papers, we have lock boxes. You must put your money in first. That triggers the paper to fall down into a slot so the buyer can reach it. There's also home delivery, which costs more, as a driver must be paid to deliver the papers - not to our doorsteps, but just to fling the paper into the driveway or front yard, or even into the bushes. Kids on bicycles no longer can earn money delivering papers. This is the situation in suburban and rural areas. I don't know how home delivery works in cities, especially in apartment buildings. Aslo, talk about a throw-away society - nowadays the papers for home delivery are stuck into plastic bags so the papers don't get wet - even on dry sunny days!

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andreas   (2011-11-17)

Lock boxes! Yes, I remember these, we had them for a short time in the 70s, but they vanished soon.

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