Totally off the grid

What's it like when you're one of the last to know? Also, 7 other things worth your time.

I’m not exactly totally off the grid this week, but I am still on vacation. (No, really, I promise; Kate’s holding down the fort and I’m only checking in six times a day…)

Apropos, I wanted to share some interesting stories of people who actually were off the grid during major world events, and who returned to find that things were suddenly very different.

For instance, meet Zach Edler, who went on a weeks-long rafting trip with a dozen friends on the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon … beginning in February 2020.

By the time they came home on March 14, 2020, it seemed the whole world had changed (New York Times, $):

[A]s they took the last paddle strokes of their journey, Mr. Edler and his friends were some of the last people on the planet unaware that the novel coronavirus had exploded into a once-in-a-generation pandemic, setting off a global health and economic crisis and shutting down large parts of American life. 

In moments, the man waving to them from the banks of the riv…