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Guest column/Nobel-winning economists share a timely lesson

We live in arguably the most innovative and prosperous era in human history. My lifetime alone has seen numerous technological leaps that past generations could never have dreamed of, including the moon landing, the birth of the internet, and now the rise of artificial intelligence. But this pace of transformation is historically the exception, not the rule — and it may not continue much longer if the infringer lobby gets its way. That’s the lesson to be drawn from last year’s Nobel Prize in economics, which was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for ...

Sometimes letting go makes us stronger

There’s a specific kind of silence that settles over a house once your children have grown and moved on. It is a sound I am still trying to get used to. It is not the peaceful silence of a nap time, nor is it the soft, late-night quiet of a household that is finally at rest. No. This is a far heavier silence than any I have ever known. This is an echoing stillness that makes you realize just how much of your identity was wrapped up in the beautiful, chaotic noise of being needed. Once in a while, that stillness becomes so great that it seems as if it stretches clear down the ...

Some annual events

With the Christmas and New Year’s holidays behind us and the calendar having flipped to 2026, we can now turn our attention to the next events that are coming our way. And while the dead of winter doesn’t always lend itself to many activities, there still are plenty of things on the horizon. For example, Jan. 19 is set aside for a couple of important events this year. The first is the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. Weather often plays a part in local events surrounding that day, but it still offers a chance for everyone to reflect on the messages King shared. It’s also ...

Well, we blinked. And just like that, another year has slipped through our fingers, joining the long line of years that came before it. But I’ll be honest with you ... this time around, I didn’t even bother keeping an eye on the clock. I didn’t hold my breath for the countdown, nor did I wait for that glittering ball to descend over a crowded Times Square. I’ve performed that dance more times than I can count. I’ve finally learned a hard-won truth: The simple turning of a page on a calendar has never actually mended a heart or fixed a problem. Not for me, ...

History in the Hills: Looking back on new years

One of my favorite movies of all time is Woody Allen’s classic 1987 film “Radio Days.” This movie is a delightful blend of history, radio, music and nostalgia from the late 1930s and 1940s. It takes place in Rockaway, N.Y., in the outskirts of New York City on the Atlantic coast, not too far from where my wife grew up. I always loved this film because of the glimpse into the past and the great music that was popular at the time. That is my favorite genre of music, so that is part of the reason I like it. One of the last scenes of the movie shows many of the radio personalities ...

Sharing your opinions

No one is quite sure when the first letter to the editor appeared in a newspaper. While opinion pieces have been around since the first words were recorded, the letter to the editor in the form we recognize today has been a part of printed publications since, well, the beginning of printed publications. They seem to really have caught on in the mid-1700s, as printing presses became more common and writers looked for ways to share their thoughts with a wider audience. Whenever they actually started, they’ve continued to grow and evolve, even as the way we communicate with each ...