Ida Tarbell. Tucker Carlson.

HANABA MUNN WELCH Overthinking overthinking Over thinker. Should it be one word? Spellcheck says no.

COMMENTARY Nothing beats shopping at a garage sale on your birthday and finding a Rolex for a dollar. Advertising on Facebook Marketplace for the everything’s-a-dollar sale included a line from the sponsoring family that said “You may find a treasure.” And sure enough, there was the Rolex, keeping company with some other lesser watches and keeping time.

It’s tempting during the sweltering summer months to despise the sun. Ah,butcomewinter,aday of sunshine that follows overcast and foggy days is pure gold with a Vitamin D boost.

More Texans than ever have signed up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act for 2024, according to federal health data released last week and reported by the Texas Tribune. The number of Texans inACAprograms,whichoffer inexpensive or free health care coverage, rose 37% to nearly 3.5 million – or 1 in 9 residents.

COMMENTARY What’sittaketobeanews reporter? A good high school English teacher. You also need to know how to gather information, and you may have to pass a drug test to get hired.

HANABA MUNN WELCH Gawrsh! Why not Faulkner? Some parents tamper with the truth. Mine gave me the straight scoop — nearly always.

Unjust desserts in the fundraising racket If you’re gonna tell people what you think, it helps to really know. I don’t always.

COMMENTARY You won’t have to come into work every day. That’s what my editor said when I took the job.

By the time you read this, the publisher and editor of these newspapers will be bound for the East Coast to spend the holidays with family and friends. This year we are taking a week’s vacation between Christmas and New Year’s and not publishing a 52nd edition of our newspapers—a break for advertisers’ budgets, as well as for support staff who would have to gather news and lay out pages on Christmas Day.