All the righteous attention to the Trump-branded Bible pre-empted rightful attention to a Trump-branded fragrance, Victory 47. But in the Dean’s Report newsletter, Dean Obeidallah defined the scent’s market: “That cologne apparently is for the man who wants to smell like a cross between cheeseburgers and victimhood.” (Thanks to Stephen L. Mathewson of Albuquerque, N.M., for spotting this.)
In The Washington Post, Carolyn Hax turned philosophical: “Every life has some element of frustration, loneliness, rejection, mistreatment, misunderstanding, raw deals, disappointment, disaster and dream-crushing. And after that comes Tuesday.” (Bob Rappaport, Arlington, Va.)
Also in The Post, George F. Will skewered the MAGA darlings Kari Lake and Bernie Moreno, Republican candidates in U.S. Senate races in Arizona and Ohio: “The new breed of anti-conservative Republicans think persuasion, and the patience of politics, is for ‘squishes,’ a favorite epithet of proudly loutish Trumpkins, who, like Lake and Moreno, seem to think the lungs are the location of wisdom.” (Jim Gray, Phoenix) Will also wrote that Lake “has the sheen of Limoges porcelain, and the manners of Al Capone.” (Michael Greason, Toronto, and Amy Helfman, Cambridge, Mass., among others)
And Amy Nicholson reviewed “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” taking a charitable tack: “Part of the film’s charm is that the humans are often flummoxed; they tend to know where the creatures are headed, but rarely why or what they can do to help, a relatable frustration for anyone who has ever dragged their pet to the vet and gotten a diagnosis of stress.” She also endorsed the palette chosen by Adam Wingard, the movie’s director: “Let James Cameron give his ‘Avatar’ organisms biological plausibility. Wingard just wants to tint one monster hot pink, another one gold and another the opalescent shimmer of a 12-year-old’s first bottle of nail polish.” (Melissa France, Flemington, N.J.)
In The Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch honored the six construction workers, all immigrants from Latin America, killed in the Baltimore bridge collapse: “They were doing a backbreaking job at a wretched hour, one many other Americans simply can’t or won’t do — all so their neighbors could drive safely to their warm, comfortable office cubicles in the dawn’s early light.” (Alan Stamm, Birmingham, Mich.)
