disappointsBy D.J. Taylor

Oct 19, 2023 | thespectator.com | Matthew Foldi |Jane Stannus |Ross Anderson |disappointsBy D.J. Taylor

Forget boy math, forget girl math: focus on Speaker Math: getting anywhere near the magic threshold of 217 votes is proving almost impossible for any Republican. Back in January, even former speaker Kevin McCarthy couldn’t get to 217, clinching the gavel with 216 votes after some of his then-foes threw him a bone by simply voting present and therefore lowering the threshold. At that point though, he never dipped below 200 votes in his marathon bid to secure the speakership.

Oct 18, 2023 | thespectator.com | Ross Anderson |disappointsBy D.J. Taylor |D.J. Taylor |Oscar Edmondson

It would have happened on a Thursday, as it does every Thursday. Crowds of young men and teen boys would have lined up outside stores around the globe, in hopes of buying the latest drop from Supreme — the pugnacious streetwear brand which rose from New York skater shop to global multibillion-dollar fashion colossus and sold to fashion conglomerate VF Corporation for $2.1 billion in December 2020.

Oct 18, 2023 | thespectator.com | D.J. Taylor |Oscar Edmondson |Ben Domenech |disappointsBy D.J. Taylor

The fellow biographer for whom I always felt the most sympathy was James Atlas. Mr. Atlas, who has left an extensive account of his tribulations in The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer’s Tale (2017), made the fatal mistake of writing a life of Saul Bellow while its subject was still alive. Bellow, you may not be surprised to learn, revealed himself to be a devious, shifty and manipulating old cuss.