I found a beautiful sentence recently that I wanted to send to Frank Bruni for his “For the Love of Sentences” feature. It was from the Ethics column in The Times. There was a husband and wife and the husband consented to the wife’s having an affair. After a bit, the wife broke off the affair, in part feeling bad about it. Of course, I forgot to send it to Frank, but several other readers did. Here it is, below, as presented in Frank’s column:

In The Times Magazine, Kwame Anthony Appiah parsed a husband’s acquiescence to his wife’s affair, for her sake, and her subsequent abandonment of it, for his: “Beneath the velvet of sweet reasonableness lurked the edged steel of unspoken ultimatums.” 

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We are devoted to our owls here, of course, but when Caity was little her favorite stuffed animals were penguins. Don’t get me wrong, she loved “Uncle Welly,” but when asked about him she’d say, “He’s daddy’s.” Anyway, for those of you who like penguins too, let’s switch briefly to Penguin Chatter, via another clip from Frank’s column:

In Smithsonian Magazine, Cheryl Katz observed Falkland Islands penguins returning to their colonies after rounding up food for their offspring: “I watch these intrepid mamas ride the churning surf below, porpoising over surging waves to shore, then blasting belly-first onto jagged, seaweed-slicked rocks. Some land, pop up on their feet and make a mad dash out of the way of the next wave. Most, however, wipe out and get swept back to sea. They’ll have to try again and again.”

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In today’s puzzle, many noted the fifth line up from the bottom. It contained only two words: DONALD and STENCH. The former was clued with: “Uncle of Huey, Dewey and Louie.”

Son Volt steered clear of the politics, instead sharing a John Prine song containing these lyrics:

But dreaming just comes natural
Like the first breath from a baby
Like sunshine feeding daisies
Like the love hidden deep in your heart

The puzzle was otherwise a paean to GROUNDHOG DAY, which it is today. Since the movie is all about repetition, it (GROUNDHOG DAY) is repeated four times in the answers, clued differently each time. It made the puzzle super easy, even for a Monday. The best of the clues, IMO, was “Film about which Harold Ramis said ‘He goes from being a prisoner of that time and place to being master of that time and place.’”

Oh, hi Andie! Haven’t seen you in a while. We’ve got some Diet Grape Soda. George! Company!

How’s Sarah? Andie’s pretty daughter Sarah Margaret Qualley is an actress too. And she’s married to Jack Antonoff, a big hotshot in the music biz. He’s worked with Taylor and has copped 13 Grammys. Here’s Sarah. Yup, we can see the resemblance.

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Claire Foy dropped by too, at 47A: “Actress Claire of ‘The Crown.’” Another knockout. What’s going on today?

Claire is English, 41, and separated from her husband with whom she had a daughter. In 2021, Foy was targeted by a stalker who sent her more than 1,000 emails in one month and turned up at her house. It was a great relief to learn it was not our staff photographer Phil, especially for Phil. They caught the guy. Phil was cleared by the investigators when it emerged that he doesn’t know how to send email.

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I read the review of Melania by Lauren Collins in the New Yorker: “a journey into the void.” It is exactly what you would think it is. Here are some snippets:

“The timing couldn’t be more infelicitous for ‘Melania,’ which showed, at a private White House screening, just hours after federal agents killed Alex Pretti, on a Minneapolis street. A notably patchy crowd, including Amazon bosses, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Mike Tyson enjoyed a spread of dichromatic snacks, such as hurricane lamps filled with white gumballs and macarons that looked as though they were made of toothpaste and coal. 

“The First Couple’s marriage, never outwardly loving, comes across as particularly arid on the rare occasions when they interact. ‘That’s a good one, congrats,’ Melania says, over the phone on Election Night, as Trump crows about his victory. ‘I will see it on the news.’ Her husband may as well have won a bowling tournament. One wonders whether she’s exacting payback for the time, in 2018, when, in a tweet welcoming her home from the hospital after a minor procedure, he accidentally called her Melanie.”

Collins reports that two-thirds of the people who worked on it asked to be removed from the credits.

Many people have noted how often M’s heels are featured in shots. I suppose we have to give them credit for that. She’s got one helluva collection. Imelda is still living, btw, 96, kinehora. These are Louboutins (maybe).

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Oy. See you tomorrow, Chatterheads.