After spending the whole night going over the plan, I finally leave the house at 9:01 a.m., wearing a long coat, fisherman’s boots, a raincoat, a swimming cap under a moscovite ushanka, a pair of diving goggles, latex gloves, woolly…
Pursuing my explanation to P, in Paris with his American lit seminar despite le confinement, Huck Finn rejects Aunt Sally’s civilizing mission and runs away, toward freedom: his own (“ahead of the rest,” he says) and Jim’s. Civilization comes with…
The more time I spend at home, the more bad things happen to me. We thought that having an untidy home was tragic, but then we tried to make it too tidy. Today at midday, I started making mashed cabbage….
I’ve always been a bit odd, I think. For example, ever since I was a small lad, I’ve fantasized about a remote, solitary life. That’s not normal, right? Well, it’s a desire that’s never left me. So, while some people,…
I didn’t have much time to drink until this nationwide lockdown. Work always prevented me. Or family. Church, too, I suppose. Now all of that is gone. But at least I have time to develop my hobbies. My wife and…
Our editors’ inboxes and comment sections are filled with insightful, sharp, and thought-provoking responses from our readers. So we’ve started a weekly roundup of highlights. Check up on our blog each Friday for more, and send your letters to editor@spectator.org!…
Joe Queenan wrote many so-so books and one great one, a memoir called Closing Time. What he had to say about reading books is vital for many people to hear right this minute: “[B]ooks are without question the wealth of…
My friend P in Paris, an occasional American Spectator contributor, notes that no one was celebrating or even remembering the day on Monday. Mouvement du 22 mars! The day it started! Ha, I say, that was when the jeunesse went wild in the…
Editor’s Note: The coronavirus pandemic has many of us shut up in our homes for now. That can be isolating and frustrating. But it can also be a chance to catch up on things we let fall away during busier…