This morning I was surprised not to find the last issue of The Economist in its usual place. Since a bit more than a year ago, it comes to Zagreb around noon on Saturdays, and it is Monday already. When I asked what went wrong this time, the answer was curt: “The pope.” I was aware of all sorts of disruptions his three-day visit to the Croatian capital would cause, but this one had skipped my mind. Lately, it was fucking volcanoes that disrupted the delivery of the mighty newspaper. Now it is the fucking pope. He could not care less about my reading and writing habits, I bet.

Addendum (June 7, 2011)

Well, The Economist is not yet in Zagreb. And it is Tuesday already. The pope’s visit must have disrupted the delivery, but now it appears that it has disrupted it well beyond the visit itself. Many other foreign newspapers are being delivered on time. Come to think of it, there is something wrong with the mighty newspaper’s distribution in Croatia. It used to arrive in the capital on Fridays until a year or so ago. And I do not remember any serious problems with it until it started arriving on Saturdays. What if the new distributor has been hired just to save money? What if it does not matter any longer how many readers in Zagreb, including this annoying one, get screwed in the process?