Remember a few weeks ago, when the Weekend Reader advised you to keep an eye on the bigger picture regarding the Trump administration’s actions and to try, however difficult, not to respond full-bore to every fresh outrage? That advice still holds. But here’s an important piece of the bigger picture: It’s a New York Times story about how critics of the administration are increasingly holding their tongues, for fear of retaliation. In other words, the administration and its supporters appear to be increasingly effective at silencing dissent. It makes you wonder: Where else in the world does that happen?

Oh, right: The editorial pages of The Washington Post. Here’s Martin Baron, the former editor of the Post, writing in The Atlantic about how Jeff Bezos. the Amazon magnate and Post owner, suddenly seems hell-bent on ruining the paper in what seems to be a successful attempt to curry favor with the administration. To be fair, Baron notes that for years before this, Bezos was the model of a responsible billionaire newspaper owner before he started acting like the villain in a Bond movie. All of which makes sense now that Amazon owns the Bond movie franchise. Villains always have more fun. (In a related story, Benjamin Svetkey — who’s been writing about Bond movies for decades, takes a deep dive into the blockbuster Bond deal.)

Closer to home, so-called “middle housing” — essentially, two- to four-unit buildings that may be appealing to people who prefer not to live in an apartment complex but can’t afford a single-family house — is one of the required pieces in solving Oregon’s housing crisis. That’s why Gov. Tina Kotek — back when she was speaker of the House — spent considerable political capital in passing a bill legalizing the placement of middle-housing units in zones once reserved for single-family homes. Since the bill passed, construction of middle house has surged in some localities — in Lebanon, for example, it now makes up 41% of all residential construction. But in other communities, for whatever reason, it has slumped: In Corvallis, before the bill passed, middle housing made up 23% of residential construction; since then, it’s only made up 7%. And we wonder why enrollment in Corvallis public schools continues to drop; it’s partially because many families can’t find housing they can afford. Jonathan Bach at The Oregonian/OregonLive covers housing for the news organization, and has this telling report.

Here’s a surprisingly fascinating story from The Atlantic that explains everything you ever wanted to know about the difference between kosher salt and regular table salt. What’s that? You say you’re not interested? Trust me on this one: You will be, especially if you occasionally cook.

A total lunar eclipse — it’s called the “blood moon” — is scheduled to begin at about 11:26 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time Thursday and is scheduled to peak about a half-hour later, around midnight. Of course, your viewing pleasure of this latest celestial spectacle will hinge on somewhat more mundane meteorological matters, such as whether the skies are clear at your location.

Did you catch that subtle reference in the item above to “Pacific Daylight Time?” That’s because this is the weekend when we spring forward one hour, losing an hour of sleep that everyone knows we’ll never get back. My position on our ridiculous twice-yearly time change is well-known by now, so I won’t belabor this. But here’s an Associated Press story with all the details. (This is a good time, though, to check the batteries in your smoke detectors.) I’ll see you all an hour late in church on Sunday.

Have had you had trouble living up to your resolution to stop doomscrolling on your phone? Writing in Vox, Adam Clark Estes says the solution may be to make your phone more boring and has suggestions for how to do that.

Speaking of boring: You say soccer is boring? Then check out the annual Royal Shrovetide match, played each year in Ashbourne, Derbyshire over in the United Kingdom. How is this centuries-old game different from regular soccer, you ask? Well, for starters, each team features hundreds of players. The aim of the game is to score at either end of a three-mile sector that can include rivers or streets (places of worship are out of bounds). And one of the rules is “no murders.” As you might imagine, scoring can be limited: This year’s match resulted in a 1-0 decision. But, apparently, no murders were committed. The Associated Press was on hand to cover the event, and I’m thankful that they were. You will be, too.

Finally, this week, here’s a delightful New York Times story about a new documentary. The documentary is about a woman, Ellen Jovin, who has set up “grammar tables” in all 50 states to share advice and conversation with passersby about past participles and the difference between “lay” and “lie” and all those pesky rules. The documentary is called, of course, “Rebel With a Clause.” But you know what? Trump sneaks into the very end of this story, too. The outrage!

OK, it’s time again to take a deep breath. We’ll see you back here next weekend.