American actor praises burgers at VJ’s Drive Inn

“Europe is going through a version of sophisticated state failure,” an analyst told the New York Times after the ultranationalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won state-level elections on Sept. 6. By capturing 39 of 83 parliamentary seats in Saxony-Anhalt, a poorer area of east Germany with two million people, it’s closer to power than any German far-right party since the Nazi era.

It then finished first in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sept. 20, securing 38 per cent of votes. In both places, the AfD must now coax others to form a coalition government to formally assume office. Opposition groups have vowed to form a firewall against it, though their resolve may fade over time.

Yet no matter what happens next in either region, the AfD’s victories mark a major milestone. Leading in national polls, the party — already the official opposition in the Bundestag — has shattered the notion it’s unelectable given Germany’s dark history.

Politics in Europe’s anchor nation could be transformed in short order. Seven more of Germany’s 16 states head to the polls over the next two years. Federal elections are slated for early 2029.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My ex-mother-in-law and I ran into each other at a political do and had a great old time. I like her much better now than when I was married to her daughter. But she enjoyed mentioning that her daughter is now much happier in her new marriage to someone other than me. That’s rude, but I was actually happy to hear it.

Then she had the nerve to ask me if I felt better-suited to my new wife, and I said, “No, because she’s a lot like your daughter.” That was an awful thing for me to finally realize fully, and in front of my ex-mother-in-law.

Is it true people keep marrying the same type of person over and over again, and just keep trying to do better each time?

— Lying Awake, Tuxedo