I cannot begin to express my disappointment with the decision to discontinue Today's Papers. Even more so than multivitamins or dark roast coffee, TP has been my daily launch pad for years now. I have never commented on a news article or even viewed Fray comments before, but I feel I have no choice but to register my frustration now.

Others have expressed TP's essential idiosyncrasies well; the comparisons in paper-to-paper coverage, the comfortable presence of a narrative, and the ability to link through to the full story if desired. I would add that TP provided a sense of permanence- the notion of "here's the daily record as it stood this morning" that is sorely lacking in the blogosphere and Twitterverse.

I love TP because I love newspapers, plain and simple. Yes, I have Twitter and Facebook, and I recognize that (in my late twenties) the majority of my peers have opted for more RSS-ified news, but nothing can replace the sense of having a daily artifact, a well-crafted document of the state of affairs as the nation's leading newspapers saw fit to provide.

At present, the best alternative I can offer is USA Today's "On Deadline" blog, a poor man's version of TP that doesn't come close to the depth and wit TP's writers provided each day:

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I have no use for the Slatest. I hope with all of my being that the powers that be at Slate reconsider their decision to pull the plug on TP. Thanks for the years of happy, informed mornings. Working on a cruise ship this summer, a daily dose of TP went a long way towards making me feel like a part of the world at large.

The thing about it is that TP did not need to be replaced by some douchey aggregator -- it could have been supplemented. This idea is about as bright as a company removing e-mail and forcing its employees to chat only (or, god forbid, Twitter).

I will take the trouble to log in and say: Slate you are stupid to remove TP. "Slatest" is NOTHING like TP. Keep TP, surely there is someone who can do it? Experiment with your newfangled BS. TP was awesome, Slatest is so ordinary.