Lana Whited at Roanoke. You probably didn't know that, but a lot of people do, thanks to the reporters. I don't mean Leslie Stahl or Tom Brokaw.
Conventional wisdom holds that life in the modern world is increasingly impersonal.
Maybe it's just that I grew up in a small town and live in a rural community, but the world I live in hasn't seemed very impersonal lately. In general, I think discretion is a good policy. We decide which of our affairs to share with others, and they exercise caution in passing our news on without our clear approval. If I'm not sure whether a colleague is announcing her pregnancy outside a private circle, I'll either keep my mouth shut or ask her if I can tell. A few years ago, a colleague who had separated from his wife showed up at a campus event with a woman he'd recently begun dating.