Mature Life Features

We don’t have to battle the vagaries of life and living facing the rest of the universe. Mention rising taxes, inflationary grocery prices and burgeoning traffic and you get answers like “I don’t drive anymore” and “My daughter pays all the bills.” That’s life in a senior-living community, more affectionately known as “an old-farts’ facility.”

Jack Reber’s nightly 919 report that embraces San Diego Union, Tribune and Union-Tribune alumni as well as survivors of a few other Copley publications keeps me apprised of some former colleagues’ behaps and I get the Wall Street Journal to read the editorial page and letters to the editor. Most of my news coverage comes out of my computer and I aim the TV remote at CNN, Fox, MSNBC and — sometimes — a local TV news station to stay up to date.

The AZ Republic is a poor excuse for a daily newspaper. It claims 2020 weekday circulation of 116,.000 and 337,900 on Sundays. With a metro Phoenix population topping 4.9 million, that figures out to approximately one out of every 40 people read the daily and one out of 15 get the Sunday edition. The Sunday circulation figure is 40,000 fewer than 2018 and the daily total is 14,000 lower. I couldn’t find any figure for digital circulation.

Fortunately, the need for getting news is not top-priority here at Sunrise of Gilbert. The inmates are more focused on what nibbles we’re getting for happy hour. And why there’s a rwo-drink limit.