Increase Your Free Time, Lower Your Blood Pressure
Want to get through The Sunday New York Times — or any news publication, online or off — in half the time the next few months?
Skip the following “non-story” stories:
10. Who’s leading in the pre-pre-pre polls for the 2016 Democratic and Republican nominations (aren’t you glad you started following Mitt Romney’s doings in 2009?).
9. Whether this year’s weather is likely to result in record high/low/average harvests this Fall (the predictions will fluctuate wildly, and the actual numbers in mid-September will be a surprise, regardless).
8. Anything relating to NFL Football before Sept. 1 — or NBA or NHL playoffs after June 1.
7. How bad or incomprehensible ObamaCare is (it may be, but I’m already maxed out).
6. The countdown to the next Fiscal Cliff; how close to the edge we get; and exactly how it gets averted. This time.
5. Anyone purporting to explain why the stock market performed as it did that day. Or claims to know what it’s going to do tomorrow (not to be confused with the sleazy financial guys who know everything.004 seconds before everyone else — legally or not — and trade on it).
4. Anything Ben Bernanke has to say about Federal Reserve policy — or supposed experts’ interpretation of same.
3. Wanton Mideast violence causing (still more) unspeakable suffering.
2. Wall Street-types who made fortunes even as their companies, customers, employees and shareholders got screwed (Note: even better than not reading about such behavior would be actually prosecuting and sentencing the people who do it).
1. Predictions about the 2014 housing market (ask yourself, how many prognosticators called this year’s market — complete with multiple offers, scarce inventory, etc. — last Summer? Answer: none).
There!
Without having to focus on any of the above, think how much time you’ll have for something truly enjoyable this Summer.
P.S.: If you’re still in the mood for reading, and want something a little lighter and more uplifting, let me suggest Dan Gutman’s terrific “time travel” series featuring a fictional 13 year-old little leaguer.
Although the books are putatively about baseball — and aimed at teenage readers (like my 2 boys) — each one imparts a mini-history lesson, and are captivating for adults, too (or at least this one).
