Doctor Curmudgeon® Don’t Spill the Coffee!

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By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

This column is not about coffee.

So, for those who are expecting a treatise on that superb beverage you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Although coffee is one of the physician’s first morning thoughts and delightful smells, there is something else that is a First Morning Awakening (after bathing and tooth brushing).

The morning newspapers!

Fondly, Doctor Curmudgeon remembers those mornings of yesteryear when her paper carried the faint smell of newsprint.

And that first unfolding of the paper, so pristine, straight out of its cellophane.

She recalls her dear friend, Johann Gutenberg. Johann did not realize the joy he would bring to others so many centuries later when he invented the first printing press utilizing movable type. That was, give or take a year or two, in 1439.

Sadly, the newspaper of today is now thinner.

Here in Miami, the Herald no longer appears on Doctor Curmudgeon’s doorstep on Saturday. But their magnificent investigative reporting continues. The ink no longer fills her nostrils nor does it stain her fingers. But the newspaper is still there, with great reporting, comics, crossword puzzles, op-ed pieces and letters from readers. We may disagree, but we love our newspaper.

Doctor Curmudgeon did not meet Benjamin Harris, who printed the first newspaper in the colonies. It had several pages and was not just a single sheet. It was titled Publick Occurences, Both Foreign and Domestick. This great birth occurred in 1690. Mr. Harris intended to publish a monthly paper, but, censorship reared its ugly head and he Governor of Massachusetts halted publication. Among Harris’ horrific offenses was his failure to secure the proper license to print!

I am copying this from Jeremy Norman’s website: Historyofinformation.com.

“Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic,” the First Newspaper Published in North America, Suppressed after a Single Issue

9/25/1690 CE

On September 25, 1690 English publisher Benjamin Harris , proprietor of the London Coffee House in Boston, Massachusetts published Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic . This was the first newspaper issued in North America. The issue contained 4 pages, the last left blank for users to write in pieces of news to hand around with the newspaper.

“It focused on local news, and included gossip; one item concerned King William’s War and atrocities attributed to Native American forces allied to the British, current in September 1690. Without a license, it was closed down after a single issue, Harris was jailed, and the next newspaper did not appear until 1704, when John Campbell’s Boston News-Letter was the first American newspaper to last beyond the first issue” (Wikipedia article on Benjamin Harrison (publisher), accessed 06-05-2012).
Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America , Vol. II, 333. Berry & Poole, Annals of Printing [1966] 139.

Newspapers must survive Doctor Curmudgeon and others like her are committed to the survival of these cornerstones of liberty.

And please remember;
1. Don’t spill the coffee on her morning paper.

2. And, never, never, never, use it to line the litterbox until after the entire household has read it!

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.

SERMO www.sermo.com “talk real world medicine”

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