Let’s start this week by acknowledging a potentially overlooked tool to battle encroaching authoritarianism: humor. Black humor can be one way to deal with bleak times — and it always has been, David A. Graham writes in The Atlantic. Leaders with authoritarian tendencies (this would include our current president, of course) can use humor effectively — many of President Trump’s rally speeches share a certain sense of timing with stand-up comedians. But, ironically, authoritarian leaders hate being laughed at. As the creator of the comics panel “This Modern World” tells Graham, “Satire provides an outlet, for both creator and reader — at the very least, you can laugh at the malevolent incompetence of it all.”

Graham’s piece mentions the “Giant Meteor of Death” meme that first showed up in the 2016 presidential campaign, when some conservatives figured that an extinction-level event was preferable to either Trump or Hillary Clinton. I’m pleased to report that Giant Meteor is back in the field for 2028.

Sunday, of course, is Easter Sunday, and it’s an unusual one, The Associated Press reports: This is one of the rare years when Catholic and Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same day. (Because the churches use different ways to determine the date of Easter, the dates can be as much as five weeks apart.) There is interest in finding a unified date, which would seem to make sense, but it’s a complicated discussion that has to overcome, among other things, centuries of mistrust between the faiths.

Speaking of Easter: Lauren Jackson, a writer for The New York Times, has a new piece that examines, at some length, what to make of recent evidence that Americans seem to be revisiting the role of religion — this, after many decades of decline. What hole in our lives does religion fill that nothing else can? Is that even the right question? See what you think after reading Jackson’s thoughtful essay.

A mysterious recent sell-off in the U.S. dollar — since mid-January, the dollar has fallen 9% against a basket of other currencies — may be an ominous sign, The Associated Press reports: It could signal a loss of confidence in the dollar as the globe’s dominant currency. And that could have vast implications, reporter Bernard Condon writes.

Some of the Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol who have been pardoned by President Trump are being hailed as heroes and martyrs among some Republicans, The Associated Press reports — and some are considering runs for political office. And I find that I have nothing to add to that.

Last year, it was the Oregon State University women’s basketball team that was devastated as eight players left the team via the transfer portal. (The rebuilt team still managed to make the NCAA tournament.) This year, the men’s team is being hollowed out: Six of its players, including five who started games for the Beavers, have entered the transfer portal. The Beavers just can’t match the paydays being handed out by other schools in NIL (name, image and likeness) money: The team’s leading scorer, Michael Rataj, inked an NIL deal from Baylor worth $1.6 million, Ryan Clarke of The Oregonian/OregonLive reports.

And so this is the point in the Weekend Reader when I feel the need to reach out for something happier — you know, something in the “Giant Meteor” vein.

Here’s Andrew Ferguson, writing in The Atlantic, about the unique pleasures of a printed newspaper — and, even though I now work for an online-only news operation — I have to admit that Ferguson has a point. If only the economics of the newspaper business were different — but that’s a discussion for another time entirely.

Writing for Nieman Lab, Sophie Culpepper reports on how some nonprofit news operations focusing on coverage of specific communities now are also looking to form regional partnerships with other news operations. The overall idea is to get more news to more people. It seems like a promising approach.

Perhaps you noticed the story this past week in The New York Times and other news outlets about how scientists think they might have found possible signs of life maybe on a distant planet, perhaps. Ross Andersen at The Atlantic explains why the story deserves even more qualifiers than you saw in the previous sentence.

And just in case you’ve lost faith in kids today: Here’s a very engaging New York Times story about the scrappy two-person team from Salem’s Sprague High School that stunned the U.S. Constitution Team competition by finishing first — and about the scoring error that threatened to wipe out their victory.

That’s it for this weekend. Let’s gather here next week to share additional thoughts on our friend, the Constitution. We’ll miss it!