In its bizarre, ongoing effort to depress people into buying the daily newspaper, the Palm Beach Post has been running a series of ads about the economy.
One ad highlighted job anxiety, unintentionally drawing attention to the more than 300 jobs lost at the Post in the past couple of years.
The latest ad seems to imply that thinking about your lost paycheck will make you want to spend money on a fish wrapper.
It touches a nerve for the many laid-off Post journalists, who wonder if their jobs are included in the 97,632 unemployment figure.
But it also strikes a pitiful note for daily newspapers in general. Look at the man in the photo: White hair, worried eyes, tightly-knotted tie. Let's say he's in his 50s, the same age as many veteran journalists who were laid off or took buyouts from South Florida's daily papers.
These men and women often had 30 years of experience on the job -- an irreplaceable wealth of institutional knowledge. Yet now they collect unemployment checks and joke that they chose early retirement.
Sadly, the man also appears to have packed up his company-issued land line phone. Who would think of hanging on to such a relic?
The phone is just as obsolete as printed daily newspapers.
