The New York Times has raised its price from $2 to $2.50 (or "to 2.50 from $2" if we go with The Times's style) for non-Sunday issues beginning today. The New York Observer marks the occasion by noting that The Times's nickel-and-diming pushes the paper's price above a single-ride fare on the MTA, the thing New Yorkers love to hate on most when it rises. Specifically, we're talking 10 nickels or five dimes -- making for a pretty significant 25 percent increase. (Sunday papers, priced at $5, are not affected.) At $2.50, a weekday issue of The Times would get you 1.11 subway or bus rides, which cost $2.25 a piece. To put today's price increase in even better context for New Yorkers, here are some vices you can engage in for $2.50:

• 0.836 McRibs ($2.99)
• 1.11 40 oz. cans of Natural Ice (aka "Natty Ice") ($2.25)
• 200 milligrams of cocaine ($120 per gram in U.S.)
• 7.4 Trojan condoms ($12.13 per 36 pack, but please never use just two-fifths of a condom)
• 1.25 weekday issues of The Wall Street Journal

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