The new political era
Donald J. Trump is, without a doubt, the most remarkable American politician to hold office since 1945
Life
Thursday
A week at the World Backgammon Championship
Only 300 players entered the World Championship in 2024 — and I was one of them
Thursday
The war against slovenliness
As a father you are part prison guard, three parts beat cop
Is it better to be posh or cool?
The tribes have a lot in common
An ode to six-on-six
The wonderfully idiosyncratic sporting variant achieved extraordinary popularity in rural Iowa
The climate ‘calamity’
The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions
The Spectator’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Our staff and regulars help you spread goodwill to all men
Monday
The new worst team in baseball
Perhaps the Chicago White Sox’s swift decline was not the result of a calculated scheme but rather a classic case of Murphy’s Law
Cacophony at the dinner table
The NIH operates a website called Noisy Planet. There you will learn that experts advise you to ‘move away from the noise’
How to know when to let friends go
I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately because I recently turned seventy and was considering throwing a big birthday party
‘Democracy’ in New York State
Since democracy is dead in New York, I write in dead persons
The joy of politics
Does the Old Republican Establishment really believe that it can resurrect, reassemble, recreate itself and run — and win — again?
Thursday
My parental lobotomy
In my experience anterograde amnesia is just as essential to the creation of new life as wine
The thrill of being recognized
There are writers and journalists who get public recognition all the time. Alas, I’m not one
A matter of presidents
The fringes of fame, the outer purlieus of power, are always much more interesting than the epicenter
The Basement Government
If the Washington elite had its way, every national government from now until Doomsday would be another Popular Front
Eighty years on, Smokey Bear has aged like a fine oak
These days, he has been modernized into a sleek, digital, AI-looking creature
The return of CRT TVs
For enthusiasts of retro video games and other esoteric media hobbies, what others see as trash is their treasure
Monday
A new approach to swimming lessons
You do not need the US Coast Guard or CCP manufacturers, hot tub trade groups or international standards agencies to avoid tragedy
Why I never enjoy going on holiday
I meant to experience Beauty. Wonder. Awe and all that jouissance jazz. Instead I’m thinking: help!