"The Word's Worth"

I know that the Moscow Times is looked upon with disdain by some people, but this column I find to be pretty interesting and useful for your Russian. The author is a linguist who lives/works in Russia and the columns typically have some sort of theme. They're informative, but pretty amusing as well (so you don't feel like you're reading some horribly boring textbook). It's published weekly, but unfortunately they have a crummy model where you can only access the last week's column without paying. Still, if you follow it, it can be a good column.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2 ... 9/007.html

Brmly,
I've seen her work in St. Petersburg Times (same paper, different address), I even printed out her article about "ничего". Pretty much fluff, but some painless learning too.