LifeThe politics

Nov 26, 2024 | thespectator.com | Alexander Larman |LifeThe politics |Aidan Hartley |Matt Ridley

Where will conservatives and Donald Trump’s disciples spend their non-working hours in DC for the president-elect’s term? The Washingtonian provided a list by Jessica Sidman last week, but by Cockburn’s estimation, it’s not totally over the target. Contenders on Sidman’s list include the Big Board, Cafe Milano, Capital Grille, Dirty Water, RPM Italian, Royal Sands Social Club, Shelly’s Back Room and the Waldorf Astoria — which used to be the Trump Hotel DC but was sold back in 2021.

Nov 26, 2024 | thespectator.com | Aidan Hartley |Alexander Larman |Matthew Lynn |LifeThe politics

Africa Orientale Italiana“Where did you get those glasses?” a stylish Italian gentleman asked me, gesturing at the acetate L.G.R. frames I wear for my myopia. I said Nairobi. “Good,” he said, “I make them.” Luca Gnecchi Ruscone and I then had a conversation that brought back fond memories of adventures across the Horn of Africa, all focused through a history of spectacle lenses.

Nov 26, 2024 | thespectator.com | Alexander Larman |Byron’s Women |LifeThe politics |Aidan Hartley

Gore Vidal once sighed that “every time a friend succeeds, I die a little,” and there is inevitably a sense that when some idiotic blockbuster makes $1 billion worldwide, our collective intelligence loses a couple of IQ points. It’s a relief, then, when the worst examples of their kind, made at enormous cost to negligible artistic impact, flop hideously: proof that audiences will not fork out for any arrant piece of trash.