My parental lobotomy
In my experience anterograde amnesia is just as essential to the creation of new life as wine
Life
Thursday
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!
Back to 1984 with Robert Dean Lurie
‘My forty-five-year-old self is inhabiting my nine-year-old body’
Overnight in New Mexico
‘I think we can look forward to an encounter tonight, after all’
A brief history of parties
The political implications of soirées
My World Series of Poker debut
In the beginning, it looked great for your hero
Thursday
Waste not want not
Any child can transition out of diapers in a weekend so long as Dad commits to the Lethal Weapon 2 method of potty training
My Martin Amis FOMO
London literary life in the late 1970s to the late 1980s looks from today like a lost golden age
How one bad scene can ruin an otherwise great movie
When I go on an early 1970s jag — revisiting the golden age of American cinema — I can never bring myself to rewatch Five Easy Pieces
The era of ideological, overreaching and omnipresent government
The faults and weaknesses of civilizations, like those of individuals, become more pronounced as they age
Should Olympians be paid?
Sporting events like the Olympics generate billions. But while officials, organizers and broadcasters are well-compensated for their roles, the athletes are not
Monday
The awesome Alan Pell Crawford
The writer has made a literary reputation on his fluid narratives of late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Southern history
The tantric sex retreat that wasn’t
I could treat the whole thing with bemused Tom Wolfe snarkiness — or keep an open mind and get with the program
Plane stupidity: my waking flight-mare
My iPhone spent almost a week last October trapped inside the belly of a Boeing 767