Why I haven't canceled the WSJ yet

I gave them a lot of grief today, since I was the one who first noticed their odd little dig at Hot Air's mysterious video financing. They promptly enjoyed what Michelle called a "bloggy ribbing" so intense they disabled comments for that post.

Now to their credit, a healthy skepticism is useful when sizing up "viral, spontaneous" political ads that show up on YouTube. But Hot Air is pretty open about who and what it is, and with all due respect to Bryan who has turned out some amazingly catchy videos to keep interest alive in the border issue, it should have been obvious that this wasn't some shadowy-deep pocketed cabal renting the Universal Studios backlot for a year to produce this.

ANYWAY, the WSJ has been in-freakin'-sufferable about the border issue, especially their editorial board (with the exception of honest debate from John Fund and virtuoso punditry on my side of the issue by Peggy Noonan), and I think a lot of people were relishing this chance to vent at them. Which reminds me: Remind me not to get on Ace's bad side.

But as tempted as I am to drop the paper, it's quirky little articles like this one that have kept me reading for--except for some time out of the country--ten years now:

On a visit to Marietta, Ga., last fall, TJ Palmer stopped into an Applebee's and ordered a bruschetta burger. "I didn't like it at all," she says.

After having visited the restaurant chain regularly for years, Ms. Palmer says, she rarely goes anymore. "It doesn't have anything that would make me want to come back."

Her assessment counts. Twenty-seven years ago, Ms. Palmer co-founded Applebee's.

The article goes on to describe how tastes have changed, but Applebee's menu hasn't. They're also getting hit by the fuel crunch, they say, and people who enjoy a night out at Applebee's are pinching pennies and staying home.

I don't know how much stock I place in this second reason; I mainly think the first one nailed it and there are now alternatives to Applebee's competing for the Applebee's dollar:

When Harry Rose opened an Applebee's franchise in Lawrenceville, N.J., in 1997, only a handful of eateries competed with him nearby. Today, he counts almost 20 mid-priced sit-down restaurants within two miles, including Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Hooters, Chevys, Olive Garden and local eateries. "They won't all survive," he says.

It's a shame; I don't think I've ever eaten at an Applebee's, but the description of their food makes me really hungry.

Meanwhile if I were a New York Times subscriber, I'd be reading about the imminent closure of some hole-in-the-wall Welsh-Laotian restaurant in some end of New York I'd never go to that specialized in fish-head soup and had been frequented by some degenerate folk singer I'd never heard of who'd OD'd in the dumpster behind it one rainy night in 1987, and there would be a sad photo of the proprietor rolling up the doors on the front, and the headline would be something like:

For Lewellyn Sukumvit, the End of an Era

And meanwhile, two years from now I would look around and wonder what the hell happened to Applebee's, and did I completely imagine it or didn't there used to be one in every small-to-medium sized town in the USA? I'd have to ask someone who read the Wall Street Journal.

They could tell me what happened, and who was really behind it.