Five Things You Might As Well Say Goodbye To Now by Ed Williams

Five Things You Might As Well Say Goodbye To Now

(in no particular order)

1. Newspapers –

Don’t get me wrong, I think there will always be the reporting of news and newspapers, but I think their current mode of delivery – the “paper” newspaper – is dead. It’s not time efficient, as you get your news from cable or the internet right when it happens versus getting it from your newspaper sometimes the next day. Hopefully the Amazon Kindle will help revive newspapers, but just do a Google search on them and you’ll see the dismal state of the business. Senator John Kerry summed it up best recently when he said, “Today, newspapers look like an endangered species.” I think it’s beyond that, in fact, I think the fork is already in ‘em.

2. Cash/Currency –

The only thing I use cash for now is to plunk quarters into the machines at my local car wash. Other than that, I use my debit and/or credit cards to pay for stuff. It’s safer, easier, and if you think I’m kidding here just take note of the fact that lots of the fast food joints are having card readers installed right into their drive-throughs. And, as our fast food joints go, so will go the rest of the nation. Just watch.

3. Paper or Clothbound Books –

Thank God there will always be books, but they’re going to follow the same road the newspapers are currently traveling. The book publishing business model has always been inefficient – a publisher buys the rights to a manuscript, assigns editors and cover artists, and then stacks the books up in a warehouse and hopes to God that lightening will strike and the books will sell. Mostly they don’t, but the few “hits” that occur provide them the revenues to keep going. The conversion to digital, in my opinion, will help more writers get their works out and will be easier on the trees as well. I fully support it.

4. John Edwards –

Let’s see, you have an affair, birth a kid with your mistress, and then your current wife writes a book about it which she’s shilling on all the major networks and cable outlets. Classy. He’s more done than a Krystal cheeseburger.

5. U.S. Car Companies –

They were already dinosaurs, and all the king’s money and all the king’s men won’t be able to put them back together again. Take a drive out on any major highway system and watch what passes by you, that should tell you all you need to know.

(Not that it matters, but here’s a bonus one for y’all) - Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard -

Actually, we said goodbye to them both after their respective American Idol seasons ended, talk about two guys who didn’t do squat afterwards! How did Chris Daughtry and Kelli Pickler lose, yet these guys win?

So, whatcha think? Am I right? Are there any I should’ve mentioned?