Sunday's ask
March 22, 2026
From the busy desk….
There are a handful of things I’m pretty good at. On the much longer list—of things I’m not so good at—is asking for financial support for The Daily Rhubarb. When I was a teen I was recruited to be an usher at our church, and this involved dunning the pews with one of those long handled baskets. I remember a crowded midnight mass when a harried young woman held up a twenty dollar bill and asked if I could make change. I froze, like a deer in her headlights. The answer was no but, still, I didn’t want to embarrass her, or me for that matter.
“I’m sorry,” I winced, “but Merry Christmas.”
This is kind of like that. Without the revenue from my Daily Rhubarb subscribers—some of whom have been remarkably generous—I wouldn’t be appearing in this space.
I have passion for what I do. But I dread asking for your financial support. A month ago I marked today on my calendar as a challenge to my procrastination. Little did I know, then, it would be on a weekend when our increasingly unhinged leader—having been spurned in his widely announced desire for the Nobel Peace Prize—is escalating an “excursion” that is wreaking havoc across the globe. We clutch our hearts, pray for the victims, mumble expletives and dread the next trip to the grocery store, or gas station.
So bear with me, please. And if I fall over—give me a second and I’ll get back on my feet, clearing my throat. And I can make change, if that’s what it takes…
Please consider becoming a paid annual subscriber to The Daily Rhubarb. If you can, thank you in advance. If you can’t, I understand and would only ask that you share your favorite stories here, at Rhubarb Salon with people who may also like them. The more the merrier.
Before I continue, I do need to resolve some lingering confusion about the Rhubarb. You are reading here, for free, because there are two feeds: The Daily Rhubarb (with paying subscribers) and this feed: Rhubarb Salon. Rhubarb Salon is free for a couple reasons. One is a to entice readers to become paid subscribers to The Daily Rhubarb, but the other reason is public service. I wanted to continue doing local/regional investigative reporting, most recently the disastrous West Plains “forever chemical” contamination that literally threatens thousands of lives. And I wanted that reporting to be widely available and not out of reach behind a pay wall. Thus the reporting on the West Plains predicament is as accessible to Rhubarb Salon readers (for free) as it is to Daily Rhubarb subscribers who pay (through Substack) $8 a month.
Quite a few of you have formally pledged to pay for Rhubarb Salon. But the thing is you can’t pay for Rhubarb Salon because I’ve not activated the “pay” function and won’t for the the above reasons. So—for those of you who have pledged or would like to help fund this project with a paid subscription—the way to do that is to become a subscriber to The Daily Rhubarb at the button below.
If you have questions you can always email me at tjconnor56@gmail.com, or call or text me at (509) 859-8572.
For those of you who don’t know my background I come from a journalism family on my mother’s side. (The photography and science reporting is inspired by my father). majored in Journalism at Washington State University and was fortunate enough to land a plum job in long-form journalism at Spokane Magazine in 1981. I’ve won several regional and national awards for my on-line and print investigative reporting and, with my brave broadcast partner—Tom Grant at KXLY—a couple top national broadcasting awards for our joint work on the River Park Square scandal. In 2011 the Washington state Bar Association recognized my work with an award for excellence in legal journalism. Obviously, I’m also a photographer. My most recent book Beautiful Wounds is filled with photography of Washington’s Channeled Scablands
Speaking of photographs, I especially love the one at the top. My daughter Audrey took it a few years back as we were finishing a long hike around Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula. That’s my beloved son, Devin, in the foreground, and that’s me on the right cradling my camera under my left arm. Dev is teaching music in Denver now; Audrey is an artist and writer who is working a couple jobs and on a Master’s degree in Portland. They’re both bright, funny, passionate and incredibly helpful.
There is something in the mood of Audrey’s photograph. For me, as a father, it captures the beauty of our natural world while harboring the open question about whether we can live in concert with nature through generations of time. At least that’s what it asks of me.
I’ve been at this for more three years now and I have some favorite stories, nearly all of which you can find in the scroll at the Rhubarb Skies website, under the Follow The Daily Rhubarb tab.
If my request (me asking you to become a paid subscriber) is awkward or untimely let me atone by steering you to one of the first Daily Rhubarb stories from three years ago. It’s the remarkable journey of an astronomer who was also a revered Catholic priest. He was a Jesuit, the Rev. George V. Coyne. He passed away six years ago but not before delivering a remarkable TED Talk on what it’s like to be a scientist and a priest. The TED Talk is embedded in my piece which you can easily find here.
I hope this finds each of you well. I genuinely appreciate your interest in what I’m trying to do.
—tjc
