Opinion

Saving: An Acquired Addiction As personality traits go, “compulsive” and “addictive” are not generally considered all that terrific. Those of us with an inclination to be obsessive struggle to overcome our obsessions.

Ronna McDaniel’s conduct following the 2020 election was shocking enough, but NBC’s decision to hire her as a paid political analyst almost topped it. The blowback from the company’s own commentators prompted the executives to turn around and send McDaniel packing.

The Biden administration regulators see a monopoly boogeyman behind the curtain of nearly every business merger and acquisition from airlines to cellphones to chicken producers. Now they’re trying to stop Capital One from acquiring the credit card company Discover.

I saw it by accident. I was sitting in the kitchen at my family’s ranch in the high foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains -- not far from Yosemite National Park.

Washington’s pink cherry blossoms, a spring sight for sore eyes, are about to be whacked. The Park Service says 150 trees must be cut down to build a new seawall round the Tidal Basin, where the marble Jefferson Monument perches perfectly on the water.

Dear Annie: My daughter is the only grandchild, and my mother gives her a gift every time we see her. I’ve told her several times that we don’t want to overwhelm our child (3 years old) with material things, that she has too many toys she doesn’t play with. It’s very important to my husband and I that our child values what she has. My mother is single and very sensitive. Either she ignores what I say or cries. My husband is getting annoyed with the amount of things coming home and berates me for not standing up for our ideals more strongly. How can I address this? -- Caught in the Middle Dear Caught in the Middle: Grandparents love to spoil their grandkids. It’s part of what makes being a grandparent such a gift; all of the fun, none of the discipline! That being said, I can understand why you don’t want your child to grow accustomed to receiving material things every time she sees Grandma.

News that Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer set off a pointless argument. One side complained that the royal family had not been forthcoming with the truth behind her long hospitalization. The other held that Catherine has a right to privacy and is under no obligation to make her medical condition public.

It’s the new season of “The Apprentice,” only this time Donald Trump isn’t looking for the next business whiz, he’s in the market for a running mate. He has his eyes on several possibilities close to home -- his original and adopted home states of New York and Florida, that is.

Dear Annie: When my nephew was a toddler and his family visited, my mom (his grandmother) got big furniture boxes discarded from stores and made forts and tunnels in our large family room. She got down on the floor and played whatever character he chose her to be in this turf maze. She didn’t care if she played a dinosaur or the Lone Ranger.

Dear Readers: We recently ran a letter from someone who complained that cashiers at grocery stores rarely thank them, the customers. I heard from many of you who have worked as cashiers at supermarkets, and I am grateful for your letters as they provide a firsthand account of the other perspective.