Reading is Dead?

[HATHAWAY@stsci.edu]

Don certainly has a point about selling stuff that involves READING being 
a losing proposition.  We all despair of the illiteracy of every American 
but ourselves.  However, by that same token the recent massive popularity 
of the Internet itself should be impossible.  After all, most all the 
messages posted and sent around and around all involve READING, not 
to mention writing (well, keyboard pushing mostly).  I wonder if the 
distinction is that a lot of access to this medium does not involve 
a direct sale of a tangible item, such as goes on in Disney stores and 
such money-generating schemes.  Still, the thousand or so newsgroups 
available right here is some indication that many Americans _do_ know 
how to read.  (A ghastly amount of noise at times ...).   Whether they 
will _pay_ for the privilege is another matter.  And whether the 
Mousemeisters will ever respect American intelligence does seem quite 
unlikely.  

QQQQQUUUUUUAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKK!!!!!  (Sorry, I needed that.)  

Wm. Hathaway 

P.S. 
(BTW, myself, I never read Fiction.  The affairs of D. Duck and the 
clan are as real to me as Bart Simpson and Rocket J. Squirrel - probably 
more so.  While Mr. Rosa and others undoubtedly work very hard to bring 
their adventures to us, I don't consider that they are making anything 
up - rather they are doing us the esteemed service of transcribing the 
actual lives of the feathered fellows so we can share in their trials 
and triumphs so as to advance ourselves and bring about a better world 
where someday bills and webbed feat can be displayed proudly in public 
and where 'fair and square' defeats the greedy forces of that corporation 
which claims to 'own' their free spirits.)  

(Hey, call me a dreamer - but how many would have thought that one 
day the word 'Hubble' would be praised and not snickered at?  Nine 
years at this place and I never thought of giving up.)