(Editor’s Note: In 1987, Tom Wolfe published a novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. In 1990, Brian De Palma directed the film version. In 1991, Julie Salamon published The Devil’s Candy, her chronicle of the making of the film. In 2022, I read her book and wrote this article.) The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom…
Good News from Bloomberg!: “The Crypto Collapse Has Flooded the Market With Rolex and Patek”
Fuck yeah it’s good news! Bloomberg’s suitably breathless Andy Hoffman has the scoop: The collapse in cryptocurrencies is easing supply of the most sought after watches on the second-hand market, depressing prices for hard-to get-Patek Philippe and Rolex models. The supply of trophy watches such as the Rolex Daytona or Patek Nautilus 5711A “is now…
Shorter Nancy Pelosi: I cans so be dumber than Joe Biden!
What is the deal with Nancy Pelosi? Is she thinking “Well, I’ve fucked up domestic policy, now I got foreign policy to deal with”? She’s already visited Ukraine (“They gave me a medal! That’s how important I am!”) and I guess maybe she’s expecting to get one from Taiwan, though, really, no one seems to…
You belong to a book club, Mr. Vanneman? That’s VERY interesting! And just what kind of a book club is this, Mr. Vanneman?
National Review lawyer guy Andrew McCarthy is not what I would call a liberal. Among other things, he is the author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency, in which he earnestly pretends to believe that “The real collusion in the 2016 election was not between the Trump…
Danny Zeitlin—“I Mean You”
Thank you, Steve Martin!
I have, on occasion, talked a little smack about Steve Martin, suggesting that El Stevo, on occasion, has expressed a little frustration about having to be, you know, funny in order to maintain the level of public attention and recognition to which he feels himself entitled. But now I have to take a good chunk…
Ezra Klein is an idiot! And so is his wife! Occasionally!
Okay, let me unpack this. On Sunday, Ezra published a really stupid column, Why a Middle-Class Lifestyle Remains Out of Reach for So Many, which, among other things, quoted from a really stupid article in the Atlantic, The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America: In one of the best decades the American economy has ever recorded,…
Is Ron DeSantis inevitable? Well, maybe.
The National Review can’t get enough of Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and it’s easy to see why: DeSantis drooler in chief Rich Lowry’s review of DeSantis’ bad boy with a Harvard sheen swagger bears the following subhead: “A glimpse at what Trumpism without Trump can look like.” Okay, to some of us that can…
CRT v. Anti-CRT: Wait, Wait! You’re BOTH Right! Occasionally.
OCTOBER 6, 2022 UPDATE: In the course of this report—somewhere in the middle—I discuss crime data from the FBI. I should have pointed out that these data are estimates rather than complete tallies. We don’t know, for example, that there were 10,440 homicides in the U.S. in 2020, although the FBI says we do. I…
Hey, wait a minute, U.S. Army guys! I think I’ve seen those balloons before!
Granted, Politico dudes, July 5 is generally a slow news day. But did you really have to lead with U.S. military’s newest weapon against China and Russia: Hot air? Lee Hudson has the, well, breathless scoop: The Pentagon is working on a new plan to rise above competition from China and Russia: balloons. The high-altitude…