Missing the companionship of cows

When the weather gets really awful, as it normally does in January around here, I find myself yearning for the companionship of cows. “Around here” is Arkansas, where my wife and I lived on a cattle farm in Perry County for nine years until her eyesight went bad and we had to move back to town.

Jack Smith did the same thing Trump did

President Donald Trump has thrown the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutions out the window. But a week before Trump became president, the Department essentially did the same to its own investigation of Trump. The Department’s hand-picked Trump prosecutor, Jack Smith, quit and released a report on the investigation that resulted in the indictment of Trump on four counts involving the 2020 election and Jan. 6. The report did not have a lot of new information in it – Smith has poured out his evidence in filing after filing for more than a year – but it did contain Smith’s assessment that he could have convicted Trump had Trump not won the presidency and is thus no longer subject to federal prosecution.

The misinformation superhighway

Notice how you never hear anybody talk about “the information superhighway” anymore? The creation of the internet marked a big advance in human ingenuity, yes. As a lifelong reader who feels claustrophobic in libraries, it’s been an enormous boon to my existence. I spend hours online every day.

Trump’s sentencing only did one thing

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced last week in the bookkeeping case brought against him by Alvin Bragg, the elected Democratic district attorney of Manhattan.

What tomorrows wait deep in Biden’s eyes?

Joe Biden was 26 then, fresh out of law school with the Delaware bar exam behind him, and a Michel Legrand song began playing on the radio of his Corvette Stingray roadster. It was called “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and even for a young man with a capacious ambition, he couldn’t have imagined the course his life would take.

Jimmy Carter’s presidency began with a simple act meant to signal a new relationship between the people and their government: He and his wife, Rosalynn, got out of their limousine and walked a short part of the inaugural parade route, hand in hand. His time in office ended four years later with a spiteful gesture by the revolutionary government of Iran, which released 52 American hostages it had held for 444 days — but only when Mr. Carter was out of office, and at the very moment when his triumphant successor was delivering his inaugural address.

Things are changing at the top of the world

With ice clumping on the sidewalks, with winds swirling between downtown buildings, and with white mountains growing in designated snow-deposit sites across the city, it only feels like the Arctic here. But all of Canada is wondering whether a new Cold War is brewing 1,456 miles from here in the real Arctic.

DO JUST ONE THING

• Ceiling fans are always a good investment to circulate air in the home, keeping it as cool or warm as you need it in the most efficient manner possible. When you want it cooler inside, have the fan go in a counterclockwise direction to push cool air down. When you want it warmer inside, set the fan in the opposite direction, which helps move warm air down from the ceiling. And remember: Opt for Energy Star ceiling fans, which can be up to 40% more efficient than standard fans.

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