Several talking heads have pointed out that the Wire's anticipated fictionalized newsroom downsizing plotline landed the same day the God's Country Times announced yet another editor was being let go for not sufficiently gutting the staff to produce larger profits.

I had my own funny micro-story today about the direction of things.

Call it a slow news day Monday - I'd forgotten City Hall would be closed for MLK so that put a ruffle in plans and I had to switch up. 'Got a message from a local resident about her backyard tree sprouting freakishly large oranges. Semi-interesting...but news? I asked my coworker what she thought, interrupting her train of thought as she worked on a front-page story about east-valley home foreclosures.

"Cool! Check it out."

So I visit the home and sho' nuff the tree is growing mutant oranges about two feet in circumference. There's probably a perfectly natural explanation for it, but neither of us know. I stop by a local nursery and a guy there offers a good enough theory.

I get back to the office ... am I really about to offer a story about oversized oranges as my daily article? Will they laugh me out of the afternoon news meeting? This is a little ridiculous, but desperate times...

I check with my supervising editor before posting the offering. Is this really good for the daily? Should I hold on to it for the community weekly? Maybe it would be a lot better there. "No, post it to the daily," she says. "Sounds like a little 'news of the weird.'"

Next thing I know, they've moved the oversized oranges story to the front page.

But they've also held my coworker's story on thousands of home foreclosures.

A cardinal rule is: Thou shalt always try to make the front page. But...