The New York Times used to highlight the good and the bad of recent issues in a publication for employees only called “Saints and Sinners.” As a journalist, my father got a copy which I always enjoyed. That said, I’ve stolen the title for my own list of saints and sinners:

• Sinner: Proud Boys. So far, they have nothing to be proud of.
• Saint: Sarah Thomas officiating at the Super Bowl. First lady to do this.
• Sinner: Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church for singing a ramped-up, styled-up rendition of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl rather than what Francis Scott Key wrote.
• Saint: Amanda Gorman, for using poetry to inspire us all.
• Sinner: U. K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson for stonewalling another Scottish independence vote and for not bothering to comb his hair.
• Saint: Dr. Fauci for trying to keep the national response to COVID on a realistic, science-based track.
• Sinner: Rand Paul for running and serving as a Republican rather than as a Libertarian.
• Saint: Helen Mirren just for being who she is.
• Sinner: Various “anchors” on Fox “News.”
• Saint:  Elizabeth Kolbert for writing Under a White Sky.
• Sinner: Government of Pakistan for banning the Oscar-hopeful film”Zindagi Tamasha”
• Saint: Hope, the SUV-sized UAE mission to Mars.
• Sinner: Myanmar’s military coup that placed the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
• Saint: The New York Times for a new documentary titled “Framing Britney Spears,” which has aired in the US.

—Malcolm