Am I the last person on the planet to discover the pleasures of reading the Sunday edition of The New York Times? As a voracious reader (click here to read Facing My Addictions) the last thing I need is another subscription to any kind of media, but I’m a hopeless print junkie and the Sunday Times is an addict’s moveable feast. The cost of about $6.00 per issue seems steep but it lasts me all week and that’s more value for my bucks than a Starbuck’s double mocha light latte. The longer I keep it sitting on the kitchen table, the more I’m able to dissect it and step into new worlds of knowledge and opinion. Here’s just a sampling of some of the more interesting bits from last Sunday’s edition:

• Never-Too-Late Bloomers: It’s a story about a writer interviewing a successful tech entrepreneur. Upon casually asking him after the interview whether he’d ever been in love, he appeared stricken by the question and volunteered that he’d been foolish and because of earlier bad behaviour let his one true love get away. This shining a bit of light on the issue induced him to gamble on an impromptu visit to his old love who was now living in England. She was scheduled to get married the following week, called it off, and . . . you know the rest. Damn! It was a great story with a happy ending. Provided hope for romantics.

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  The Return of Werner Erhard: He’s the guy responsible for developing the controversial EST training seminars that were popular in the seventies. Seminar attendees were insulted, berated and humiliatingly forbidden bathroom breaks during his sessions. The program was repackaged and marketed very successfully as The Forum in Russia in recent years with equally questionable outcomes. This piece was particularly interesting to me because a friend attended one of his training events all those years ago and was shocked by the proceedings. He’s still around and plying his trade.

• When Hardship Informs Leadership: Margaret Keane, C.E.O. of Synchrony Financial is a high-profile success story but her beginnings were not easy. She grew up in a small house in Brooklyn with six siblings and two cousins, a policeman father and no special advantages in life. Her story is inspiring and reminded me of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and author/journalist Jeannette Walls who wrote The Glass Castle. Women from disadvantaged backgrounds who rise to success always fascinate me.
• Melissa Halliburton Anticipates a golden age for pet travel: Frustrated with being unable to travel conveniently with her own pets, Halliburton created a website dedicated to informing pet owners on everything related to pet-friendly hotels and advice for easing the experience. She also has a book called “Ruff Guide to the United States”. As a pet owner myself, I found the information helpful and relevant.
• A Life Story That Dazzles: Best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford has accumulated a collection of rare and unique items of jewelry over the years and is now at an age where she is auctioning some of it off.  I recall how much I enjoyed reading A Woman of Substance in the seventies and thoroughly enjoyed the story of how her jewelry is often featured in her novels.

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  Direct-Sale Parties Are a Tough Sell in the City: Who hasn’t been to a Nu-Skin, Mary-Kaye, Tupperware or jewelry party in someone’s home? Even though we really don’t need or want anything in particular, we enjoy the social get-together and feel obliged to support the hostess for plying us with wine and hors d’oeuvres so we buy something. With on-line retailing and easy access to so many consumer goods these days, particularly in cities, it’s difficult for vendors to earn any real money. Having been on both the selling and buying end of these multi-level marketing organizations myself over the years, I found the analysis of the viability of such businesses quite fascinating.

• Addicted to Distraction: We’ve all experienced the addictive pull of substances and behaviours not conducive to our overall health and well-being. Internet or cell phone addiction; Diet Coke; alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, weed; binge-watching TV. The list of vices is endless and so is the list of offenders. I felt somewhat vindicated reading about someone else’s struggle with breaking bad behaviours and recognized myself as one of them.

The NY Times even has its own on-line store (nytimes.com/store). What more could one ask for. I can fuel my love of shopping for that unique bit of crap I might not already own by following the siren’s call of the internet. Is that double jeopardy or double indemnity? All I know is I like it. So if you need a baseball pen set with dirt from all thirty major league stadiums, it’s at your fingertips at a cost of a mere $435.00. Even the Times’ ads are fascinating with pictures of rare and expensive consumer goodies I’ll never own or even see in my daily life.

I love reading essays and The Times’ writing is so literate and informative I can hardly keep from yelling out quotes to my husband while I’m reading. There’s the usual bad news content about Syria and other world problems, but there’s so much more, including theatre, art, style, business, sports and of course, an entire tabloid supplement on my favourite subject, books. How could it have taken me so long to find this wonderful assortment of knowledge and entertainment? Where have you been all my life? I urge Boomer Broads to treat yourself to just one Sunday edition of the New York Times and see if you don’t get hooked too. I know a nice little man on the corner who will keep you supplied at a good price. Who can resist? Not me.

This is absolutely not a paid endorsement.

Just the honest opinion of one Boomer Broad.

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