I was watching the news with a teenager the evening Kodak announced that it was going to stop making Kodachrome film for cameras. He said, “What’s film for cameras?” Obviously, Kodak should have stopped making the stuff five or ten years ago. Did they think that people who take pictures with their smart phones are suddenly going to go back to pictures they can’t e-mail, that take 24 hours to develop and that cost a small fortune? Photos they can’t crop, resize, enhance, Photoshop, or remove redeye from?

Wouldn’t a bigger story be, what kind of throwback is still using film? Are they the same people who still use fountain pens, wear bowties and buy long-playing records? Do they think they are holding back the barbarians from the gates, or are they simply late adapters?

Who couldn’t help but notice over the past few years that gigantic film-return sections of the local big-box stores were half empty? Who hasn’t noticed that if you want to show someone a photograph now, you e-mail it or you post it on Flickr?

News anchors, that’s who. They seemed totally shocked. If Kodachrome can go, what’s going to bite the dust next, they seemed to be thinking. Selectric typewriters? Pay phones? Antimacassars? VHS tapes? Pong? Jukeboxes? Super 8 movies? Slide carousels? Spats? Why, if Kodachrome can go, is anything safe?