Who doesn't love the New York Times? (Folks residing 100 miles from a coastline need not answer.) Truth be told, I used to feel guilty reading it online, paying nary a cent to relish its content, wallow in its brilliance, and glean copious amounts of recipes from its Wednesday edition. Everyone needs to know how to make a Ramos Fizz or the right ingredients for a cornmeal-herb dumpling, especially after trying to catch up on why Vladimir Putin thinks he needs a new missile defense plan. 

Of course all good things must come to end, as did access to much of the content in the online New York Times. Like Cinderella at the ball, you only had so much time to check it out before the clock struck midnight and the remarkable readings would be sealed away in the pay-per-view vault called Times Select. (Hey, I understood; a paper's got to make a buck and God knows I wasn't paying for a reporter on the Left Bank or Mark Bittman's videographer.) 

That's when I broke up with the Times; well actually it was more of trial separation because Maureen Dowd was placed on permanent Times Select status. I took it personally. Was there a cookie tracking my daily reads and re-reads of my favorite Pulitzer Prize winning columnist? (If we could get clowns like this to pay for it, the money will roll in! ) Subscribe or pay for dog food; it was a choice decided by man's best friend. Out of my hands and discretionary income budget and into the paws of the needy.