Which of these statements, lifted from a newspaper, is true? The New Yorker has parted ways with its art critic (Jackson Arn) after the Condé Nast-owned magazine received complaints that he behaved dishonorably and made people "uncomfortable" with his allegedly “inappropriate” behavior at the periodical's 100th anniversary party in February. Don Lemon claims women at CNN sexually harassed him, including one who touched his nipples. Rosie O'Donnell, who will turrn sixty-three next week, revealed that she is moving to Ireland for "a nexus of reasons, tax benefits being one, but also my lifelong ..read more

People are talking about "Columbia University’s Anti-Semitism Problem" by Franklin Foer in The Atlantic: Here are a few ecerpts. "If the bullying of Jewish students had happened to any other group, the institution would be appalled."        Related Stories Douglas Murray on Israel, Hamas and the Future of Democracy   ..read more

The Party Everyone started talking about the drama critic As soon as she left. "Did you see what she Was wearing?" The Presidents of Harvard, Brown, and Duke Were quoted deploring recruitment practices current On their campuses. Would you say that these gentlemen Are sincere? I would unhesitatingly do so! I happen to know them and can vouch that each Is an honorable man, and is married to the mother Of the eye-turning theater critic whose power To make or break a play is unparalleled in New York -- Lovely to look at, quick with a quip, easy to love -- Yes, but none of them has the backbone to ..read more

I doubt I’m the only one who has been under the weather, under a cloud or a looming feeling of dread and doubt and disbelief. I’ve had a lingering cold for weeks that’s made my head feel twenty pounds heavier. This morning the doctor prescribed various medications for me, but I fear the cure is not in a medicine bottle. In my logy state of mind, I’ve been dipping in and out of books and poems and podcasts, and I have come across a few uplifting discoveries. First, Denise Duhamel's wonderful poem,"How It Will End," was featured on my favorite poetry podcast, Poetry Unbound last week. Everyone s ..read more

"The Great Chevalier Tour", reaching for the sky for Luxemburg, Le Grand Chevalier. Photo © Arnaud Bouvier As part of the premier of The Great Chevalier Tour, M. Chevalier chose the Vanves, France, City Hall salle du marriage for his historic homage to Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg the iconic Danse du Pigeon, the trembling heart of the legendary ballet’s founders’, sisters Joséphine and Claudine Bal’s, signature ballet, Josiane la Paysanne (“Josiane the female Peasant”). The Danse du Pigeon sequence of Josiane is today recognized as the paradigm of Western folklore ballet, was deve ..read more

I doubt I’m the only one who has been under the weather, under a cloud or a looming feeling of dread and doubt and disbelief. I’ve had a lingering cold for weeks that’s made my head feel twenty pounds heavier. This morning the doctor prerscribed various medications for me, but I fear the cure is not in a medicine bottle. In my logy state of mind, I’ve been dipping in and out of books and poems and podcasts, and I have come across a few uplifting discoveries. First, Denise Duhamel's wonderful poem,"How It Will End," was featured on my favorite poetry podcast, Poetry Unbound last week. Everyone ..read more

>> Epigraph to Graham Greene's novel Our Man in Havana (1958). The protagonist -- an English widower living in pre-Castro Cuba -- is a vacuum-cleaning salesman named Wormwold, as unattractive a name as Greene could manage. In order to satisfy the demands of intelligence officers in a gray faceless London building, Wormwold dupes them by creating "purely notional spies" and killing them off, "like a bad novelist preparing an effect." (Alec Guiness plays him in the movie.) The book is in a comic tenor but is less a spoof than a forcible statement on the extent to which military intelligenc ..read more

In Praise of Ignorance On a bench one afternoon in a grassy park in Minneapolis, I realized that what I liked best about the dogs of Minneapolis is they have no idea they’re in Minneapolis. The same could be said of the dogs of Houston or Philadelphia, it occurred to me on the slow walk back to my hotel, but I was in no mood to be distracted. I’m sticking with the dogs of Minneapolis, I resolved as the elevator rose to my floor, just as they stick with their owners, the natives of Minneapolis, most of whom know exactly where they are. Alone in my room on the 17th floor, I surveyed the vast pro ..read more

>> Douglas Murray at Temple Emanu-El.        Related Stories Dear David: : "What do you plan to do once you become a time millionaire?"   ..read more

________________________________________________________________ Chunk of Sea Glass Becky I’m typing this in your study. It’s a rainy fall day and for some reason I want to type “you’re in Japan” and don’t know where your man and kid are. Man and kid feels a little crass but it’s okay because I’ve let myself into your house and I’m weak, and drunk, and a little hungry, looking at a sizable chunk of blue-green sea glass here on your desk, considering the weight it exerts upon the desk and the desk’s equal (inverse) force upon its base. A thunderstorm’s just passed through, I type that. And one ..read more