I’m a big fan of Frank Bruni and am a longtime reader of both his columns and his newsletter. Here’s how he opened his most recent installment of the latter:

What a challenging year. Many of us struggle to make sense of what’s happening in America. We cope in different ways. Some spend more time in nature. Others retreat into books or the gym.

Still others turn to their keyboards, distilling this unruly world into words.

It’s their work that I honor today (and that I honor regularly in For the Love of Sentences, a feature of my Times Opinion newsletter). I’m revisiting especially fine passages of prose from the past 12 months.

He then shared close to sixty gems, from an array of sources, and in so doing inspired this post. I had many favorites among his list that weren’t, alas, “acrostic-able”. Happily, this one was. (Disclaimer: if you’re a proud supporter of POTUS 45/47, hit the ESC button now).

For those who are interested, here‘s a link to the full story from which the above quote is taken.

And here’s one of my favorites that I couldn’t wrestle into an acrostic: a parody (from James Hamblin in The New York Times), of the typical message and script of a television drug ad: “You will frolic on the beach at sunset psoriasis-free, with a golden retriever, smiling into the distance. You also may experience sudden loss of cardiac function, seizures of the arms or intermittent explosive ear discharge. Talk to your doctor.”

Wishing you all the best in 2026. If this is your first time here, welcome, and I hope you’ll come back. If you’re a return visitor, THANK YOU for taking yet another look.