Mitch McConnell is an unusual cat. He was the only Republican — the only one out of 53 — to vote against Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. And the only one to vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services. McConnell was the leader of the Republicans in the Senate for 18 years: 2007 to 2025. But now he stands alone. Yes, an unusual cat, and I lead my Impromptus today with him: here.

Let’s have some mail. In my Impromptus a few days ago, I wrote,

If someone says he is serious about getting America’s fiscal house in order, ask him one question: Are you prepared to reform entitlements? If he is not, he is not serious. President Trump et al. will apparently succeed in abolishing USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, RFE/RL, and so on. But they would want to do so if we were running a massive surplus. Money is not the issue.

A reader writes,

Dear Mr. Nordlinger,

. . . Soon after the Soviets stopped jamming VOA transmissions in Russian in 1987, I started listening and was listening for hours literally every day for almost five years. (Several weeks after I stopped, I subscribed to National Review, as I was finally in the U.S. — still without a car or TV, but with an NR subscription.)

Yes. We had many, many readers from the Unfree World, grateful for what we were saying.

I had a brief post titled “What’s an American?” A reader writes,

Dear Jay,

For many years I have quipped that my ethnic background is Heinz 57, a bit of this and a bit of that. Hidden in the joke is a bit of regret that I don’t have any particular ethnic heritage I can claim as my own, just generic American — not that I am not proud to be an American, but that’s more an ideological inheritance than an ethnic one. My husband, on the other hand, has Czech-immigrant ancestors. He still remembers his great-grandparents speaking only Czech. Shortly after we were married, we went to the local cemetery, and most of the tombstones had Czech names.

Now we have a grandson who is half Chinese. We are all American.

In that column a few days ago, I wrote,

For eons, we have had an expression: “What does that have to do with the price of eggs?” Perusing the news the other night, I thought, “The expression now seems so literal.”

A reader writes,

Jay!

“What does that have to do with the price of eggs?” Sayings like that amuse me, and I suspect that their particulars vary from place to place. For example, my mother will sometimes remark, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” I use it myself sometimes.

. . . When the weather is cold, my same mother will say, “It’s colder than a well-digger’s [behind].” I knew an old lawyer who would say, “You’re dressed up like a Waxahachie clap doctor.” That was when you had fancy clothes on. If someone was mentally unbalanced, he’d say, “That fella’s crazier than a peach-orchard boar.” (Maybe you should ask Kevin D. Williamson whether he’s heard either of those, because the old lawyer lived in Lubbock, same as KDW did.)

Another reader writes,

In Spanish, we say, “¿Qué tiene que ver el pelo de la pestaña con la uña del pie?” (“What does the eyelash have to do with the toenail?”).

At the end of my column, I made mention of “Volare,” the song by Domenico Modugno, which was a hit in the late ’50s — and thereafter. A reader writes,

Thanks for the reference to “Volare”! I remember its being played in our house in the early ’60s incessantly. On WJR’s “Music Hall,” hosted by J.P. McCarthy. This was an English version recorded by Dean Martin.

Clearly, our letter-writer grew up in Detroit or the Detroit area, same as I did. Here is that Dean Martin version. I have one objection, mainly: An opening lyric goes, “Let’s fly way up to the clouds / Away from the maddening crowds” — but it’s “madding crowds,” as in the Hardy novel, Far from the Madding Crowd.

In any case — my thanks to all readers and correspondents.