COLD . . .

I'm disappointed in myself.

After returning from lunch, I logged onto the Internet and pulled up The New York Times webpage to check the most recent news. To my dismay, I discovered that ... I am no longer moved.

I am no longer moved by this dumb war in Iraq. I am no longer moved by terrorist threats and color-coded vigilance levels. I am no longer moved by rising fuel prices. I am no longer moved by Quinnipiac University polls telling me John Kerry is edging up on President Bush. I am no longer moved by prisoner abuse, high-level North-South Korean cabinet meetings, deadly storms in the Caribbean, kidnapped college students, murder-suicides, bank robberies or major drug busts. Even my fervent fascination with the Italian crime families? Even them -- no longer moved.

I don't know if this is because I am moving, and have too much other stuff to think about and pay attention to. Or maybe I have become just as A.D.D. as everyone else around me, and reading the same news every day, every hour, just isn't fun or interesting anymore. Or maybe my distrust of the media and everything it tells me is running too deeply for me to take anything I read and hear seriously. Or maybe today just isn't a day for me to be reading the news.

I've never been one not to care, to be unmoved. I have scoffed at those who don't care, who don't feel, who are not on the edge of their seats waiting for breaking news from the four corners of the world. But here I am, unfeeling, uninterested, even disinterested. Now THAT is interesting ...