On zsh, "print -rC2" for printing some listing in 2 column format. The number of columns (C) can be specified. (print is a builtin).

zsh's file globbing is awesome. Some simple ones:

    *(.)  - only files  
    *(/)  - only dirs  
    *(.m0) - files modified today  
    *(.om[1,15]) - 15 recently modified files