This column may leave as many questions unanswered as it answers, but they need to be raised. Consider “privacy”: The quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others.

Glow with the flow. Get plugged in. Lighten up! This is the time of year our headline writers search for synonyms and practice their puns. It’s getting close to Tacky Lights Tour time, and that calls for a good play on words and wattage. A note of explanation for newcomers: In most cases, you wouldn’t want to be called tacky. Around here, it’s a term of endearment.

Goose-bump moments. We all have them. Sometimes, they come at unexpected times. I was fortunate enough recently to visit Hawaii, and while there my wife and I took a “duck” tour of Honolulu that included a trip to Pearl Harbor. As we motored around the city in a ridiculously yellow amphibious landing craft, our guide pointed out various sites and played kitschy songs by the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Don Ho, etc.

It has been more than year since the financial meltdown transformed the economy, the way business is conducted and regulated, and the way people conduct their personal finances. It also changed the way the me JOHN
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dia, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, cover the economy and business. We routinely showcase our daily business coverage on the front page and our in-depth projects on the Sunday front to examine the impacts of the recession. We restyled the Sunday Business section as Moneywise to offer readers a lens into how other people and companies are weathering the economic storm. And we continue to press forward with delivering our business news report not only in the newspaper but online and through mobile alerts, e-newsletters, and social media such as Twitter.

You probably noticed the promotional ads in the paper or messages on our Facebook page about our new electronic newsletter, MetroBiz2go. In case you missed it, here’s the news. MetroBiz2go, a weekly e-mail newsletter, launched in mid-August. The e-newsletter is like a younger sister to our popular and long-standing Metro Business print section, which is published each Monday.

What makes an event newsworthy? Where should we draw the line on free speech? Our readers often disagree with us, and with one another, on the answers to these important questions. On Wednesday morning on TimesDispatch .com, we broke the story that a dog belonging to Robin Starr, CEO of the Richmond SPCA, died after being left unattended in her car for four hours on a day when temperatures topped 90 degrees.

Three months ago, we wrote about the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s weekly auto racing fantasy contest, in which participants can win tickets to races at Richmond International Raceway. We were only 11 weeks into the season then. This weekend’s race, the Sharpie 500 in Bristol, was the 24th Sprint Cup event of the year, and we’re only three weeks away from the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at RIR on Sept. 12.

If rules were made to be broken, should they even be rules in the first place? Consider i before e, except after c. This pithy phrase was a stalwart of our grade-school spelling lessons, and decades later, we can recall it in an instant. That’s durability—in fact, we may be hard-pressed as adults to quickly name another memorable spelling or grammar rule.

The most memorable line from the mostly forgettable 1980s television series “The A-Team” was uttered at the end of each episode by ringleader Col. John “Hannibal” Smith: “I love it when a plan comes together.“ That’s a sentiment I sometimes repeat, aloud or to myself, as we put together each day’s Richmond Times-Dispatch. My job, as night editor, is to lead the discussion about which stories we use on Page A1. That discussion can continue all through the evening, as events warrant.

Whether we’re at the grocery store, at a dinner party, or at the pool, there’s one question all reporters and editors get from regular newspaper and online readers: “How do you find your stories?“ Sometimes, they find us. Sometimes, we find them. One case of reporter-as-investigator came last week, and it’s a good example of a story that requires some creative digging and good sourcing by our reporting team to make the story come to life.

Friends who go out to eat with Dana Craig have learned the hard way: Everybody has to order something different, she’ll demand bites of food from around the table, and she’ll make discreet notes on how tangy the vinaigrette is and whether the steak is grilled to her satisfaction. Craig is The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s restaurant reviewer, and her pieces appear Thursdays in the Weekend section. You won’t see her photo there or with this column because staying anonymous ensures that she gets treated like any other paying customer.

Can you recall the last time you shot a roll of color film? Most people probably can’t. Such has been the speed at which digital technology has taken over the photographic world. On any given day you can buy 8to 12-megapixel cameras for less than $200. That wasn’t always the case. The first truly workable digital camera for photojournalists, Kodak’s NC2000, was released in early 1994. It cost $17,950 and had less than 2 megapixels of memory.

In a media world with countless news outlets and even more opinionated voices, finding expert sources to add perspective and depth to our coverage is more important than ever. Richmond Times-Dispatch reporters have developed relationships with a number of people they call upon to help decipher an increasingly complex and, often, confusing world. We include their expert observations to make our stories more valuable to our readers.

With the Fourth of July less than a week away, most of you no doubt have plans to spend time with family and friends. Maybe you plan to catch some spectacular fireworks or host a cookout in your backyard. Whatever your plans, when you gather, what will you talk about? Will you catch up on what your neighbors have been doing since the last community cookout? Or whether you can afford a trip to the beach this year? Or how good Aunt Dot’s potato salad tastes year after year?

You can take it with you. Podcasts allow readers on the go to download our online shows on entertainment, sports, politics, current events, and commentary and view them at any time or place on a laptop, netbook, smart phone, or portable media player. If you’re saying, “What’s a podcast?“ you’re not alone: The majority of Americans haven’t heard of podcasting, according to a recent report by Arbitron and Edison Research. But why not join the 22 percent of Americans who do listen to podcasts for fun and information? Read on!