We’ve given up on local television as a source of news. It’s an embarrassment—shallow and of little use when it comes to enlightening and informing the population. We do watch...

I subscribe to The New Yorker magazine and admit without shame that I do so for the cartoons. I read the articles occasionally—the venerable Roger Angell’s annual mid-winter summary of...

By that I don’t mean you have actually made their acquaintance. But that’s the thing about our favorite writers, isn’t it? We really do feel that we know them. And...