Couple Reading Newspaper In Print

People At A Coffee ShopThere was something a little ‘off’ about the pair planted in the window of the coffee shop that Sunday morning.There they were reading a newspaper, a newspaper in print mind you.

There are few souls here in the coffee shop who still cling to the news-in-print habit. For some, savoring obituaries in newsprint can be hard to give up.

When you walk the few blocks to get here, you’ll see only a single Wall Street Journal pitched on the lawn.

It’s doubtful Kristen and David will ever circle classified ads and copy phone numbers to find an apartment, or stockpile old papers to line the bottom of drawers or re-pot house plants.

They know the news in print is a day out of date – they consult their phones frequently to stay informed. But sharing a printed paper on Sunday mornings has become a personal ritual dear to them.

David stops at the newsstand (there’s still one on the next corner) to pick up the morning edition. It’s half the size it was when he was a kid. They divvy up the paper and share comments from respective sections.

It’s not just their news consumption that was ironic about them. The way they were dressed that particular Sunday morning was out-of-sync with their demographics. (And, no, they weren’t on the way to church services.)

David wore a conservative sports jacket with a laundered, button-down shirt and jeans; much like his father might have worn while dating his mother.

Kristen wore an elegant, black sweater with a flowing, pleated ochre skirt over knee-height leather boots. Jackie Bouvier comes to mind.

They shop at thrift stores, they said, proving once again that “any old thing” looks fashionable on beautiful, young people. For a brief moment of time, through osmosis, we all felt a little more glamorous than usual.