Shrinking words

An elderly woman was walking down Broadway a few days ago. She was holding her hat to block the morning sun on her face.

My friend and I were drawn to her. He rolled down the window of the car and struck up a conversation.

He introduced himself, and then me, and she recognized my name and then my face.

“I enjoy reading you in the newspaper,’’ she said.

I thanked her for being a loyal reader. Then I waited. Usually a compliment like that is a preface to some kind of complaint they want to register while they have a captive audience.

I get complaints about delivery of the newspaper. I get complaints about the paper being too liberal. I get complaints about the comic page and the crossword puzzle. I get complaints about not getting the late sports scores in the morning print edition.

Her complaint was different.

“How come the newspaper keeps getting smaller?” she said. “I can’t read the words. They keep getting smaller.’’

Ah, the incredible shrinking newsprint. I hear this from the bifocal crowd all the time.

But while the paper itself has gotten narrower, the size of the typeface has remained the same and, in some cases, is larger. And that a lot of our efforts are in making the transition to on-line newspapers.

You don’t want to tell them they need to have their eyes checked.

I certainly don’t want to tell them newspapers aren't going to go to large-print editions any time soon.