Spring!

72 deg temperature early morning. The bullfrogs bellow. Trees are green, flowers bloom. Spring is here, life is good in Lakeland!

The death of the printed newspaper?

Recently I heard a prediction that possibly within five years, and surely ten years, there will be no physical newspapers, even in major cities. I expect the five year forecast may well become true based no current trends.

As a lifelong reader of newspapers, I know I will feel a sense of loss when physical newspapers are no longer available.

My love affair with the daily newspaper started when I was in the child and we got the newspapers from a neighbor.

With no TV, I read anything I could and reading the daily newspaper became a lifelong habit in the seventh grade when my Dad told me he was going to cancel the newspaper if I just read the comics every day. I started “faking” reading it, and shortly started reading it for real and I started my lifelong interest in “what is going on”.

I worked on the high school newspaper, as a “stringer” for the local newspaper in high school and my college newspaper and probably would have taken more journalism courses or even majored in journalism if the college I attended had offered such courses. I attribute my love of writing to learning to write stories for the newspaper and the “5 W’s and H” and the KISS principle.

Even today, I read two daily newspapers and three if I have time, which I rarely do. There is something so good about picking up the paper in the morning and sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading the daily newspaper. (I read the second one in the evening, although sometimes it is a really fast read!) I know I spend too much time on it, but it is a good time of day and I have learned that I should enjoy the good times and not feel guilty about enjoying something!

I enjoy reading the “digital” newspapers also, especially when I just want to pick up the latest news, but I will miss the physical newspaper when it is no longer available.

How Police Officers came to be called "Cops"

I have heard many reasons why Police Officers are called "Cops".  I think I finally found the answer in a book by Daniel Howe, "What Hath God Wrought:  The Transformation of America, 1815 59 1848.

Prior to 1844, there actually were not municipal police forces.  Municipal police forces were created by New York City in 1844 to deal with the rise of riots at the time.  Actually London started the first professional Police Force (called "Bobbies" after founder, Sir Robert Peel).  In 1844 New York City started the first municipal police force in the United States.  

As professional police forces were created in cities, there was some resistance to uniforms (since they smacked of militarism) and frequently the only identification was their copper badge.

The nickname became "coppers" or shorted to "cops" and the nickname stuck.

Out of the numerous explanations I have heard this sound the most logical!

Also, the title of the book is interesting.  Howe points out that there was no question mark (or exclamation point) in the original telegraph message.  It was "What has God Wrought".  It was a statement.