MARK JUDGE: Dishwashing through the Pandemic. “That night a friend called, and when he heard I was a dishwasher, he said found my situation ‘poignant.’ I’d been a book author, a contributor to places like The Washington Post and The New York Times, and the target of an explosive and well-publicized 2018 political hit. My friend reminded me of something I hadn’t though about since my time at Catholic University in the 1980s. At the end of the Inferno, Dante and Virgil can only escape hell by climbing up Satan’s asshole.”

Some of the people who lecture us on decency dropped him as a friend as soon as the first hint of — bogus, made-up, libelous — scandal appeared. They’re still lecturing, though.