“I don’t know about you, but I spent election night with my family,” wrote Ben Brantley in The New York Times two days after Barack Obama was re-elected president.
“The Apples are not, for the record, my blood kin,” he went on to clarify. “But after spending both Tuesday night and the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with them, I have come to feel as closely related to them as if we had grown up under the same roof. They annoy, tickle and inspire me; and they make me feel wanted and generous and unkind and guilty—and about as comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time as anybody can. As I said, they’re family.”
