If this isn't a recession, then what is it?

Forepaughs and the Parkview Cafe are two of my favorite St. Paul restaurants even though they are about as different as can be.

Lynne and I got married at Forepaughs, which is a converted Victorian house in a nice area of St. Paul. It is a very nice restaurant where dinner and a couple of drinks will run you about $100. But the food is always good and the service impeccable. It is the kind of place where you always feel respected and respectable at the same time.

The owner, Ed Christy, is a terrific fellow who can make the routine of days seem special. In the case of the wedding, it could not have gone off better if we had spent $10,000 for a wedding planner. With the price tag being what it is, we only visit a couple of times a year. But it is always worth trip.

Now Ed is selling the place. The new owners haven't said what they are going to do do with it but they did say they are going to change the menu. Why does somebody sell a place like that? Because the market won't bear it.

The Parkview was located in the neighborhood where my wife grew up. It wasn't fancy but it had been there for five decades. The food was always prepared the way you like it and you never came out of there hungry. (It had a special place in my stomach because you could get a bottle of Vernors Ginger Ale -- nectar of the gods -- there.)The Parkview was a simple place. It closed at 2 p.m. every day. But it was usually busy and the people who worked there always smiled. The owners lost their lease and are said to be looking elsewhere. There is probably more we don't know but the bottom line is this: another neighborhood place is out of business.

We keep hearing from high-priced fellows in Washington we are not in a recession. Perhaps. But all I know is this: our choices for just about everything (gas stations, theaters, restaurants) are diminishing almost daily. And new ones aren't popping up.

So, if this isn't a recession we are in, what the hell do we call it?