A big-city sports columnist came one day to speak to our journalism class. At the end, there was Q&A, and I had a question: What makes your opinions better than anyone else’s?

His answer was just as blunt: People pay to read my opinions.

I recalled that story the other night over dinner with a college classmate, and I laughed to think that now I’m paid to read other people’s opinions.

(Thirty years later, that columnist is now an Anglican deacon.)