Nostalgia for a time when news was not free

The other day when I posted one of my columns to Facebook — hey, they don’t throw themselves into the mammoth moneymaking maw, given over gratis by wimpy old-school journalism to the social-media billionaires who have eaten our lunch — a Bay Area friend complained in the FB comments section: “Your paper has put up a pay wall, and I can’t read this!”
I didn’t want to get into the economic weeds with him. All I wrote in reply was: “Baby needs new sho