Music to Festoon By
Jollity and beauty from Joni Mitchell, Lena Horne, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Louis Armstrong, the Pogues, Eartha Kitt, and more
Impeachment-Palooza
With disequilibrium the order of the day, some podcasts make smart, entertaining sense of it all
Prima Time
Francesca Hayward arrives in Cats, Coppélia, and Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words
Little Woman
Florence Pugh is a kick playing the least likable March sister in Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel
EPISODE V: “Nothing Ever Changes in Palm Beach”
A little more correspondence from Lansy Everett, formerly of the New York Herald Tribune, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar
Why Are We Still Loving Friends?
It’s the most streamed show on Netflix. Teenagers quote its jokes—even though it is 25 years old. So what explains its appeal?
The Panto Season ‘Tis upon Us
The British pantomime is noisy, camp, and a complete hoot
The Underground
The retro grandeur of Soviet-era metro stations
No, Virginia, There Isn’t a Santa Claus!
Revisiting a Spy piece that proved, once and for all, scientifically, what no child wanted to hear
First Impressions
A new book remembers more than a decade spent in the orbit of Beckett and de Beauvoir. Here, its author describes her early encounters with the literary stars
Master and Commander
The U.S.S. Lincoln projects American sea power on a small speck off the coast of Newfoundland
EPISODE IV: “The Clue Lay in the Outsider Art!”
Still more correspondence from Lansy Everett, formerly of the New York Herald Tribune, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue, Worth, and Harper’s Bazaar
B. J. Novak
So much more than a children’s book: on metafiction for kids
First Love
Little-known correspondence from Elizabeth Bishop offers a glimpse into the poet’s romantic life
