The World According to Gillespie

THE SUPERMARKET ACCORDING TO GILLESPIE     This column originally appeared on Wicked Local. The supermarket has become a curious place.   A simple trip to the grocery store that once meant picking up bread, milk, eggs, and in my case usually something impossible to find like a tiny can of black olives has become riddled with choices, some of which could leave even the most decisive person in a state of total confusion.   Upon entering the modern grocery store the first decision to be made is whether to use a cart, a half-cart, or just carry a basket.   It is widely believed that using the full-size cart automatically means that you will buy more groceries.   Therefore, toting a basket to simplify is a great idea unless milk is on your list which means you will be carrying an item that weighs the equivalent of a barbell while you shop.     This past week, my wife sent me out on a mission to buy some specific groceries:   bread, cereal, milk, eggs, crackers, and Or

THE PAPERBOY - A THING OF THE PAST    This column originally appeared on Wicked Local.    On the third day of the power outage last week, I knew that there was one thing I could look forward to that did not require electricity – the Sunday paper.   The paper never came.   I tried to blame it on the storm.   It was possible that my delivery person’s car had been crushed by a large elm.   Maybe their home had lost power and subsequently forced them to relocate to a motel in Malden for a few days.   Although I tried to take on an attitude of empathy, I couldn’t quite think of a logical reason why my newspaper could not have been delivered.   When I was a kid (back in the Paleozoic Era), it served as a rite of passage to take over somebody’s paper route.   Taking on a paper route was an opportunity through which you could establish a working relationship in the community.   And if you were a bad paperboy, everyone in town would know it (at least that’s what I was always afra