You Know You're in a Recession When Your Neighborhood BP Station Starts Selling Porn

Times are tough. We're all looking for new ways to make and save money. If you're in business, you've got to innovate to stay alive.

And if you're my local gas station, "innovate" means "turn to the skin industry." (Actually, come to think of it, those two concepts are probably synonymous for a lot of the population. Sigh.)

You can imagine my surprise when I walked in to the convenience store for a bag of Cheetos and some Diet Coke after my fill-up and discovered pornography where the donut boxes used to be. Sure, you can't find wine or liquor in the BP, but there is porn. Because that makes sense.

I was also surprised by the "grab bag" concept of porn in which you trade a non-de-script box labeled "black," "white" or "latina" for an actual title from behind the cash register. It seems like an odd formula, but my guess is that if you're accustomed to getting your jollies at the gas station, you're not all that particular to begin with.