Like a Tita

The Best Sentences of 2023 compiled by Frank Bruni in the New York Times.

Over recent days, I took on a daunting task — but a delightful one. I reviewed all the passages of prose featured in the For the Love of Sentences section of my Times Opinion newsletter in 2023 and tried to determine the best of the best. And there’s no doing that, at least not objectively, not when the harvest is so bountiful.

What follows is a sample of the sentences that, upon fresh examination, made me smile the widest or nod the hardest or wish the most ardently and enviously that I’d written them. I hope they give you as much pleasure as they gave me when I reread them.

My favorite in this list:

Alexis Soloski described her encounter with the actor Taylor Kitsch: “There’s a lonesomeness at the core of him that makes women want to save him and men want to buy him a beer. I am a mother of young children and the temptation to offer him a snack was sometimes overwhelming.”

In Pinoy culture, we call this tendency "acting like a tita." The English word, "aunt," doesn't quite deliver the nuance of the Filipino, "tita." For some reason, I remember my friends Carla Barbon, Bea Uy, and Everly Ramos. And Racquel Bruno! I hope to meet you soon, friends!