Newspaper Delivery Hero

I wake up ridiculously early. Generally it’s between 4am and 4:30am, with remarkable consistency. At this time of night it’s still fully dark and eerily quiet. My habit when rising this early is to prepare a bowl of cereal and enjoy it while reading the newspaper. As in the current day’s newspaper. Now you might say to yourself, “Why, but the previous day just ended four hours before! Surely they’re still working on finalizing the next day’s edition, or at least still printing at such an hour!”

Amazingly, when I walk down the driveway every morning before 4:30, the paper is there. Without fail. (Perhaps an event of historical proportions, such as the upcoming election, will break the streak.) I never cease to be amazed at the efficiency of this process—from articles being written, to edited, to put in a layout, to printed, to loaded in cars, to distributed, all before 95% of Atlantans are awake.

So this is partly a message of thanks to my newspaper delivery person: I don’t know who you are—whether you’re a man or woman, young or old, whether you drive a car or a truck, or if you throw the paper with your right hand or your left. But somehow, despite the obscenely early hour at which I require it, I have freshly printed news every morning. Most people might not appreciate how early you get your job done, but it means the world to me.