Long Live NPR

The work day can be divided into chunks of time, mangeable portions defined primarily as pre-lunch or post-lunch.  There’s the morning hour, glinting ever so slightly with the promise of a young day.  Then, the pre-lunch hour, when I’m giddy at the prospect of hot potato cheese soup from the cafeteria next door.  Afternoon chunks are harder to define and much harder to enjoy.  It’s impossible to be excited until at least 4:30, the beginning of the “home stretch” chunk.  That excruciating time in between, after lunch but before the home stretch, is a wasteland.  Productivity?  Don’t think so.  Not when the minutes creep by like a trip to the DMV.

OK, maybe I don’t have the right to complain anymore.  I’ve found a remedy, a sweet concoction that makes the pill go down very smoothly.  It’s aural and cerebral snack food, and it’s called iTunes radio.  You mean, I can ride the Apple bus without actually owning an iPod?   Exactly.  The most exciting part of the whole thing is that I don’t have to surf around for the streaming station that sucks least.  No, I can browse choices in conveniently labeled folders that are nestled happily in my iTunes window.

I have always been an NPR fanatic, but iTunes radio has elevated me to psycho-obsession status.  Don’t think about interrupting Talk of the Nation, and God forbid I have to do something like use the restroom during KQED’s Forum.   I have never been so interested in topics like Iranian folk music or the complex theories of our new Nobel chemist.  The programming feeds my intellect and stimulates critical thought; newly inspired creativity wafts like a sea breeze over the wasteland hours.  Face it, when TV news stations  rely on “Now in HD!” to promote their broadcasts, NPR is a welcome breath of Fresh Air.  (Nice use of pun, if I may say so.)