Well, that was a weird week.

Here’s a lesson in politics from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the man who led that one word tone-shift, from helpless catastrophizing to the personal, in his recent appearance on Ezra Klein’s podcast:

What I see is that that kind of stuff is overwhelming for people. It's like other big issues, like climate change. If you can't tackle it one piece at a time, it just seems, why should I do anything about it? And for me as a teacher, you couldn't make your case while people were in that mindset. When they're in a fear mindset, it's very difficult for them to listen. And they kept hearing that.

I hope your decision not to adopt the federal electoral boundary changes for the next provincial election, as reported this week by the Toronto Star, is in the public interest, Premier Ford.

Not to be outdone by the New York Times’s list of the (alleged and, frankly, rather topical) one hundred best books of the century, the Economist has published an interactive calculator to help you assess how long it will take you to read the greatest five hundred books of all time. It’s fun to play with—and, actually, a great reminder that many of these so-called classics are not worth your time.