Before the digital age blossomed, Before Amazon algorithmized our lives, Before our journalism and our authors became fully curated – – a miserable commercial word – Before all that One of my regular pleasures, Was a weekly visit to Some current favorite news-stand. Perhaps it was parked in a bookstore, Or was an opened air kiosk, Or on a sidewalk, sun-shaded, The racks mounted on an exterior market wall, And only occasionally, since this is LA, Was it weather screened, Ten days maybe out of the year, to shield Magazines Newspapers Journals Weekly news Vanity periodicals And all the rest from the rain and wet. Different stands had different modes. Some well organized: Art here Auto there Housekeeping and home beautiful carefully arranged, Business journals properly positioned. Sports and muscle and cars all next to the cashier. Opinion, science, the thoughtful chin strokers down the rack, If you wanted those you wouldn’t pick up and walk away, The adult stuff carefully kept under wraps — How innocent those were to what our digital times spew! Some stands were a compete muddle, Organized, If you could call it that, by color, or date, or size, or some private, mysterious method. Need I mention, These actually were the most surprising, Since it seemed that the purchaser Had no idea of what they were buying. And I had no idea of what I would find: One-off sci-fi pulp, A hot rod magazine from England (of all places) Something in German, or French. Arabic?
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Algorithmized
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Before the digital age blossomed, Before Amazon algorithmized our lives, Before our journalism and our authors became fully curated – – a miserable commercial word – Before all that One of my regular pleasures, Was a weekly visit to Some current favorite news-stand. Perhaps it was parked in a bookstore, Or was an opened air kiosk, Or on a sidewalk, sun-shaded, The racks mounted on an exterior market wall, And only occasionally, since this is LA, Was it weather screened, Ten days maybe out of the year, to shield Magazines Newspapers Journals Weekly news Vanity periodicals And all the rest from the rain and wet. Different stands had different modes. Some well organized: Art here Auto there Housekeeping and home beautiful carefully arranged, Business journals properly positioned. Sports and muscle and cars all next to the cashier. Opinion, science, the thoughtful chin strokers down the rack, If you wanted those you wouldn’t pick up and walk away, The adult stuff carefully kept under wraps — How innocent those were to what our digital times spew! Some stands were a compete muddle, Organized, If you could call it that, by color, or date, or size, or some private, mysterious method. Need I mention, These actually were the most surprising, Since it seemed that the purchaser Had no idea of what they were buying. And I had no idea of what I would find: One-off sci-fi pulp, A hot rod magazine from England (of all places) Something in German, or French. Arabic?