A New iPad and a Pile of Change
Finally, this self proclaimed Luddite, gets an iPad (actually I won one, which only makes you wonder how long it would have been until I actually purchased one). No matter, I now own one, and it was definitely love at first “slide to unlock.”
Intuitive, sleek, and now loaded with every feature and app you could want (newspapers, books, movies, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Foursquare, Pandora, Skype, Facetime, and the list goes on). It wasn’t long before my life became very one-stop-shoppy and on-the goey. 
My Klout score grew. Movie queues shrank. Mayoralships became commonplace.
Yet the pile of change on my bookshelf returned. And therein lies the problem. I have, since my iPad’s arrival, lost that dynamic interaction I once had with my local deli/newsstand.
Gone are the days that began with a trip downstairs to the deli for the latest editorial hat trick: The Post, The Times, The Journal, which were mostly paid in loose change and of course accompanied by the decade-long “linty penny” joke.
As I look back now, it was the jokes and non-virtual dynamic with my friend behind the counter that I miss the most. Through him, l learned bodega Arabic, the geography of Yemen and the names of his children and brothers. I would help him with translating a Visa bill’s fine print or the instructions on some delivery orders. And there has always been the secure feeling of having a watchguard for my bike, a temporary shelter when I lost my keys, a holding tank for large packages and countless free umbrellas.
I walked into the deli on New Year’s eve day to buy all the countdown editions—in print—to see and feel all the year-in-review photos. “Are you coming back down tomorrow? I’d like to say to say Happy New Year to you. I haven’t seen you in a while.”
And then it hit me, who needs a pile of change on a bookshelf anyway? 