...because they are read. But why are they? Thoreau thought them a waste of time; he argued in Walden that if we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in winter— we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what...

...a half hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, 'What's the news?' If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter — we need never read of another. One is enough." sights and sounds of the twentieth century. "The Concord...

...book sees print. In Walden Thoreau is upset with the news for reporting only sensational tragedies, "one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat...up, or one cow run over on the Western railroad," while ignoring essential principles; thus he asserts that "To a philosopher all news, as it is called,...

...so often safely offered in jest. And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat 7 blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers...

...repudiate news on the grounds that once you've heard one item you've heard them all: "If we read of ... one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad...killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter, — we need never read of another. . . . [I]f you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for...

...things.22 Henry David Thoreau, in particular, expressed his disdain of news as gossip, writing in Waiden: "If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...the winter,— we never need read of another. One is enough."23 For Thoreau, discrimination in newspaper reading was required: "If we will read newspapers,...

...a half hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, 'What's the news?' as Darwin pointed out. Nobody need never read of another. One is enough." I doubt that Thoreau would be thrown off balance by the...

...almost never received a letter worth the postage] that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in winter, — we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle,...

...finery, and Thoreau is nearly alone in his calm assurance that he could do without the post office, that "if we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed...winter- we never need read of another. One is enough." Even in his day, "hardly a man takes a half hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up...

...The rest is mere titillation. 'If we read,' wrote the notable hermit and occasional dingbat Thoreau, 'of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident,...killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter - we need never read of another. One is enough.' I change station to a music channel, tire of that and silence...