Nathan King
June 4, 2022, 6:04 A.M.
To: Graydon
Graydon, this came through the general AIR MAIL drop. It’s from the brother of Ed Coaster—you know, from the Vanity Fair days. Not sure how you want to handle it.
Ned Coaster
June 3, 2022, 10:04 A.M.
To: Airmail.news
G-Man!
It’s Ned Coaster, Ed’s better-looking and more successful brother. LOL. I think we met at Evans’s house back in the 90s. Bob’s butler was shoving me out the door just as you were entering. I swear I was invited to that little shindig. There’s no accounting for manners out there in Lalawood.
Anyhoo, I was lazing around the bar of a high-end dive in Juan-les-Pins when I bumped into a friend of yours from your V.F. days. Mitch something or other. Over a glass of Gautier cognac ’62 (that’s 1762 to you), he got to reminiscing. Upshot: he said that most of your “accomplishments” at the magazine were in fact his ideas, and that you passed them off as your own. I told him that my brother had the same complaints. We took immediate shines to each other.
Mitch, if I have his name correctly, said you were in the airmail business, which sounded a bit out of character, since if it was shipping things from place to place, it would involve actual work. Lo, after Mitch picked up the bill, I googled you and “airmail” on my trusty Galaxy Z Flip and came upon this valiant little starter newsletter of yours.
I read the most recent issue. As you probably know from Ed, writing is in the Coaster blood. We live to write. And I have a story idea for you. “The Coast with Coaster.” More of a series, really. You get me a smart Audi A4 convertible and I slip into my monk straps, fire up a Cohiba Behike, and cruise the corniche from Hyères in the west to Menton in the east, stopping along the way at places like St. Tropez, Antibes, and Cap Ferrat. I spend a few nights at the finest hotels on the route and bring your readers in on the Coaster world of true Côte d’Azur glamour.
These are stories that your provincial Canadian mind could only dream of. One of my closest friends is Ilya Popov. Sounds Russian, but he’s actually from Belarus. Travels everywhere with a 25-year-old male. Kid must eat strictly vegetarian and work out an hour a day. No booze or cigarettes. Is he there for the scintillating company? No, he’s along in case Ilya gets sick and needs an organ transplant. Ilya and the kid have the same blood type. You love that?
Also, tell your partner Alessandra that her last few columns have been a bit flat. Not enough adjectives would be my first line of advice. For a few thou a month, I can give her missives the sort of literary gloss that your little journal is sadly missing. You and Alessandra should check out my periodic Substack offerings, “The Coast(er) of Utopia.”
Regarding “The Coast with Coaster,” a wire transfer of $25,000 can get me wheeled up and on the road. There is nothing I’d like more than to pitch in to save Airmail.
Best always, Ned
Ned Coaster is a flaneur and bon vivant and the inventor of the Coaster coaster
