Hey. I learned about a new word tonight! Costwall. Not that I have to explain it. Y'all know what it means.
A costwall is a disruptive process or requirement, usually involving a little bit of money, that stands between you and a resource, in an otherwise uninterrupted stream of behavior.Wall Street Journal website, New York Times website. You know the drill. A costwall stings the most when you're all geared up to get at what's on the other side of the costwall (most. awesomest. allergy. advice. ever. As described by some blogger...) and then bam! "You could enjoy this article if you were a Speckiesville Gazette subscriber." Who are they kidding?
I was so excited about this new word, I looked it up on Google. As of this writing, it came up 158 times. In those instances, the word "unfortunately" appears 43 times. As in "I'm going to talk about an idea I would love to refer you to, unfortunately, it's behind a costwall."
Don't mean to get all Debbie Downer.
