"The smartest thing the paper did was to turn itself into a true national newspaper, with the very best Web site," a Times writer told me recently over dinner.
The observation comes after an incident in which Mr. Murdoch began arguing about Europe with the prime minister at the time, John Major, over dinner, rudely dismissing the single currency, which Mr. Major supported, as "a bloody bad joke".
My dad was reading The Bible Code at the time, and over dinner I would intake bits of casual commentary about humanity's impending doom which he would divulge to my mom between spoonfuls of scalloped potatoes.
Better yet, listen over dinner.
"It helps to have done time," he said over dinner at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan recently, referring to his long, busy, but not especially fulfilling career as a journeyman character actor, mostly in German television.
You get the feeling you'd have a great time with him over dinner and 10 Fosters.
Local innkeeper Janet Wortman, whose Yurok ancestors have lived along the Klamath River "since the beginning of time," told me over dinner about how, long before white people arrived, her tribe made houses with redwood planks.
If not then do it some other time, but not over dinner, or in a public place, or when football is on.
In Comey's account, as relayed in the Times, the President, over dinner, demanded an oath of loyalty; Comey promised only his honesty.
Take your time over your Christmas dinner - life is too fast and we often don't celebrate the most important things we have.
