O the Roast Beef of Old England (The Gate of Calais), William Hogarth, 1748, Tate Britain, London
Recent links of note:
Britain Can Do Better
Max Boot, Commentary
Add another voice to the chorus singing of Jeremy Corbyn’s increasingly likely election as leader of Britain’s Labour Party. While some, like Jay Nordlinger, see Corbyn’s rise as a cause for sadness, lamenting the demise of a once-great party, Max Boot sees a positive in Corbyn’s election: it could be the death-knell of the feeble party. With a man who “makes Bernie Sanders look like a John Bircher” set to lead Labour, Boot says that “odds are it will survive Corbyn, too. But it shouldn’t. Britain can do better.”
Crazy Like a Visionary
Roger Kimball, City Journal
This week in City Journal, our own Roger Kimball reviews Ashlee Vance’s new biography of Elon Musk, identifying in Musk a forgotten truth, namely that “individuals matter.” The dynamism, ambition, and continued success of Musk are to be admired, and when someone like Larry Page says “to the extent that the world still doubts Elon, I think it’s a reflection on the insanity of the world and not on the supposed insanity of Elon,” perhaps we ought to listen.
Why Walkability Matters
Gracy Olmstead, The American Conservative
We are fortunate in New York: blessed with a well-designed city and constant automotive gridlock, walking is no great thing. It’s simply how one gets from place to place. Not so in the rest of America, where cars dominate transport. The benefits of walking are countless but its chief virtue may be that “it breaks down insular barriers that keep us from knowing and appreciating our place, our moment.” As cities are constantly being redesigned, urban planners would do well to consider “walkability” first.
The Guardian declares war on the Sunday roast
Steerpike, The Spectator
“Steerpike,” the Spectator’s redoubtable home for “gossip,” (which doesn’t describe nearly the pleasures to be found there) takes on what some might deem an easy target: The Guardian, that bulwark of effete leftist orthodoxy. The latest thing to offend the paper’s delicate sensibilities? Britain’s iconic Sunday roast. The crime? The reinforcement of “a reactionary past of set values and set menus, of the exploitation of people and animals.” Now, pass the gravy.
Notable & Quotable: The New New York
James Panero, The Wall Street Journal
We’re delighted and honored to let our readers know that The Wall Street Journal has selected our own James Panero’s recent piece for City Journal on homelessness in New York as its excerpted “Notable & Quotable” piece this week. Congratulations, James.
From our pages:
A sufferable snob
Bruce Bawer
A new collection of Henry James’s letters reveals the early development of the writer.