People DO read on the subway

A hard-bitten editor took me to task for not speaking up a couple of weeks ago at a session about freelancing to her paper and others in New York.  “You students have to be more brave,” she said after imploring me to speak up.

She also complained that she sees no one reading on the train these days, which she said explains why her paper needs to write shorter articles.  Well, last night I did an informal survey of my section of the One Train going uptown.  On the side across from me, four out of seven riders were reading–one the New Yorker, one the New York Times, another a book, the fourth another magazine.  On my side, three out of the six of us were reading.  I was one who was not reading, because I only had a few stops on the train, and I needed to rest my eyes after a long day anyway.

I don’t know what subway this woman rides, because my experience last night is pretty typical of what I see on the train.  I also do not think making conclusions about people’s reading habits based on subway rides is so smart.  Plenty of people are just exhausted on the train, especially going to or from work, and need to close their eyes or stare straight ahead, even the voracious readers among us. Is that so wrong?

Is ‘I’m in a meeting’ an excuse to avoid me?

I am calling unions, schools, and parents today to try to find out simply what they think of the empowerment schools.  Almost every person has told me that the people I want to talk to are “in a meeting.”  Now, I know Monday is a popular day for meetings, but what are the odds that every person in education who I have called is in one?  Can a media-savvy person speak to whether this is a frequent excuse given to (soon to not be as) bright-eyed reporters like me?