Collective dumbing down

I used to think Paṁjāb Kēsarī (पंजाब केसरी) was the most ridiculous newspaper in the world. Not any more. It is not the most ridiculous, it is merely one of many. I have seen Paṁjāb Kēsarī report some of the weirdest things in the world, but nothing tops this headline: 

我的松鼠朋友 天天換新帽

My squirrel friend changes its hat everyday

If you were to glance down the page, there is a news from India

96歲印度農民 世界最老父親

96-year-old Indian peasant is world's oldest father

Now this is absurd, this is insane and it convinces me of one thing: 'merely learning thousands of characters doesn't make you educated, you need much more than that.'

Thank goodness my newspaper The Indian EXPRESS isn't like that. It doesn't sell much, less than half-a-million copies a day, because it doesn't report about a pair of snakes dancing in rain but I love it.

I don't know what kind of newspaper Merit Times (人間福報) is, it certainly is not the one I will ever want to buy!