iNewspaper

Over the past three years, I read the Financial Times on my commute to the office. One of many people reading a paper, it wasn't uncommon to see the Times, Post, FT, WSJ and a number of free dailies folded meticulously in the hands of nearly every commuter on a packed downtown 6 Train.

Cross the country and stay above ground, and I am the one of the only people reading a real newspaper on my bus, and for sure the only one with the Wall Street Journal.

I read the Journal for work and sometimes I even enjoy it (never the Editorial page, though). But the looks I get on a San Francisco bus reading the Wall Street Journal are shocking; you would think I was reading a Playboy in church.

And I am on an express bus to the Financial District!

These looks may be that I get an actual paper and it seems that anyone under the age of ancient (and there are lots of ancient folks on the Muni buses) is on at least one device for the entire commute downtown. My first day a guy opened his backpack, opened up his lap top and took out a mouse, to work...on the bus.

That guy is just as crazy as a 20-something perfectly folding the Wall Street Journal to catch up on economic data and listen to what is Heard on the Street.