At some point in our trek my companion became unconscious in his newspaper. It was probably just as well. The enterprising gentleman had little to learn from the likes of The New York Post, unless it was game stats or a crash course in not-thinking critically. In Philadelphia we suffer under the malevolent reign of the Daily News, which is sort of like intellectual crack for working people. As I watched the sun set over my companion's tripe-induced slumber, I wondered if the price we pay for literacy isn't just a more respectable form of ignorance. William Safire, for instance.