Dear Listener,

I had planned this week to write about spineless former Trump advisers who are now doing the dance of distancing themselves from the former president – from Deborah Birx, who advised Trump on the pandemic, to John Eastman, who advised Trump on how to get Mike Pence to undo the election result. But I’ll save that for another week.

Last night after dinner with an old friend, where good food was had and good Cabernet was drunk, I was headed home in the back seat of an Uber. It was close to 11 pm. I pulled out my phone and happened upon a tweet. Someone had posted a message, ostensibly from a surgeon, saying “You will never read a more beautiful social media post in your life.” So, primed by this bit of hype, I read on. This was the message:

“Today, I operated on a little girl. She needed O-blood. We didn’t have any, but her twin brother has O-blood. I explained to him that it was a matter of life and death. He sat quietly for a moment, and then said goodbye to his parents. I didn’t think anything of it until after we took his blood and he asked, 'So when will I die?' He thought he was giving his life for hers. Thankfully, they’ll both be fine.”