Columnists

10/07/2026 · Smithfield

The Three-Second Space Between a Request and Your Yes

You don’t need to become a boundary-enforcing robot. Start with one small habit: stop answering requests on reflex.

10/06/2026

The Question That Keeps Blake’s Tiger Burning

William Blake’s “The Tyger” is famous for its fierce animal, but its real subject is a question that refuses to behave. Read it once for the music; read it again for the unsettling thought hiding underneath.

10/06/2026

Column

The Generosity of Paying Attention

Simone Weil’s most useful definition of generosity has nothing to do with money. It begins with the difficult, almost radical act of giving another person your undivided attention.

10/06/2026

Column

The National Ear: Washington Keeps Testing the Price of Power

Four national fights are colliding: presidential power, stubborn prices, immigration, and artificial intelligence. The most important story may involve a court ruling that will change how federal agencies write rules long after the election noise fades.

10/06/2026

Column

The Relationship Problems You Keep Calling “Small”

Three readers ask about the supposedly minor habits that are quietly turning their relationships into group projects, accounting disputes, and emotional escape rooms. The hard truth: small problems become big when nobody is willing to name them.

10/06/2026

Column

Wallace, Idaho: The Town Under the Interstate

Take I-90 into the Idaho panhandle and stop where the freeway does something genuinely strange: it rises over an old mining town. Wallace is compact, walkable, inexpensive, and just odd enough to make a weekend feel like a proper road trip.

10/07/2026