You are all already suitably horrified by Trump’s reaction to the Reiner killings, I’m sure. Even some of his supporters were impressed, negatively, I mean. Here’s some of what David Remnick of The New Yorker wrote on it.

“After a decade of constant presence on the political stage, Trump no longer seems capable of shocking anyone with the brutality of his language or the heedlessness of his behavior. And yet the President really did seem to break through to a new level of degradation this week.

“. . . And so it is worth asking, do you know anyone quite as malevolent? At your place of work? On your campus? A colleague? A teacher? Much less someone whose impulses and furies in no small measure dictate the direction, fate, and temper of the country? Have you ever in your life encountered a character as wretched as Donald Trump?”

“He says such horrible things. You have to wonder how he sleeps at televised afternoon meetings.”

---

This poem is called “Cardinals.” It’s by John L. Stanizzi. It’s from yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac.

for Carol

I had seen them in the tree,
and heard they mate for life,
so I hung a bird feeder
and waited.
By the third day,
sparrows and purple finches
hovered and jockeyed
like a swarm of bees
fighting over one flower.
So I hung another feeder,
but the squabbling continued
and the seed spilled
like a shower
of tiny meteors
onto the ground
where starlings
had congregated,
and blue jays,
annoyed at the world,
disrupted everyone
except the mourning doves,
who ambled around
like plump old women
poking for the firmest
head of lettuce.

Then early one evening
they came,
the only ones—
she stood
on the periphery
of the small galaxy of seed;
he hopped
among the nuggets,
calmly chose
one seed at a time,
carried it to her,
placed it in her beak;
she, head tilted,
accepted it.
Then they fluffed,
hopped together,
did it all over again.

And filled with love,
I phoned to tell you,
over and over,
about each time
he celebrated
being there,
all alone,
with her.

---

---

“Did you say you needed a six-pin-to-eight-pin FireWire for a 2006 MacBook?”

---

In the puzzle today, at 33D the clue was “Knockoff version of a bejeweled Imperial egg, e.g.” and the answer was FAUXBERGE. Get it? A cute portmanteau.

I thought 43A would raise a few eyebrows for awkwardness. The clue was “Botch,” and the answer MISDO. Commenter MichGirl asked: “Are we not going to talk about MISDO?,” and I replied: “I’d rather we MISDON’T.”

BRETT was in the puzzle, clued via her role in “The Sun Also Rises,” which Rex, surprisingly for an English prof, said he never read. I posted the following on it:

In an episode of Cheers, Diane mentions “The Sun Also Rises,” and Sam says “Well, that’s profound.” Actually, Diane purchased a first edition for a pretty penny and lent it to Sam. Sam being Sam, he took it to read in the bathtub and dropped it in. Brought it back all bloated.

Remember that one, anybody? Ava Gardner played Brett in the movie, totally on fleek. Hubba hubba.

JEN Tulloch was in the grid too, clued with her role in Severance. I saw a few episodes but didn’t get hooked. Don’t recall seeing Jen. She’s from Kentucky, 42, and gay. Here she is. Phil couldn’t fit all the hair in one shot.

---

Have to go back to you-know-whom. Sorry, but the plaques are simply beyond hysterical. I will tell you up front I am not making this up, but you may still not believe me. Trump has f*cked with the presidential portraits in the White House. He took a Sharpie and drew a moustache and glasses on Obama. No, he didn’t do that, but the rest of this is true: He has rewritten the plaques under them. First, he replaced Biden’s portrait with a photo of an autopen. (See, I told you you wouldn’t believe me. See below.) Under it, the new plaque he made up starts: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction….”

Obama’s new plaque says he “was one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” who “passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act.”

The plaque for Ronald Reagan claims he was “a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House.”

You can imagine the bloviating in the ones he wrote for himself. Stuff like “”the Greatest Economy in the History of the World.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the plaques feature “eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind,” adding that “many were written directly by the President himself.”

No kidding.

OMG, there is nothing sexier than KL in full Trump mode. Amirite, fellas? Definitely hotter with the cross.

---

Had a blast at the Sirens game last night, but, alas, our good-luck streak ended at two. The Boston Fleet took it to us 2-0. It felt like we outplayed them on the ice — and we did have more shots on goal than they did (33-21), but their goalie, Aerin Frankel, was a rock. It was a tough order: Boston is 5-0 now (and the Sirens fell to 2-4), but we battled every inch of the way. Next time, girls!

See you tomorrow, Chatterheads. Thanks for popping in!