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December 14, 2024
The Best
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No. 283
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Edition
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In This Week’s Issue
THE NAME OF THE GAME

For much of his life, Rich Cohen felt as though his name was holding him back. That is, until he attended a party filled entirely with other Richard Cohens …

ESCAPE CLAN

Following a heinous 50-year regime, the murderous Assad family has at last been run out of Syria—and into the unwelcoming arms of Vladimir Putin …

VACCINES, AND VAPES, AND PERSONAL TRUTHS, OH MY!

Is The Bear actually good? Does monogamy get a bad rap? Our inaugural Over-Under List weighs in on the 2024 hype …

DADDY’S LITTLE C.E.O.

Is Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s budding bromance merely a symptom of their thirst for power or are they drawn together by a longing for the father-son relationship neither ever had?

BOOM AND BUST

At the height of his success, education-and-media entrepreneur Chris Whittle had one of the loveliest houses in East Hampton and flew on private jets—then he lost everything. And yet, he’s not giving up …

THE TIMES THEY WERE A-CHANGIN’

Less slick than New York but more wide-ranging than Newsweek, the 1970s’ New Times magazine became a beacon for a type of New Journalism you couldn’t find anywhere else …

PALATIAL PERFECTION

Casa Salvati! Haus Schminke! Villa Winternitz! From Lake Garda to Löbau, the Iconic Houses network offers stays at nearly 200 properties designed by renowned architects. We’ve made a list of the 10 best …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Laurie David’s rock opera takes on abortion rights … our car columnist honors 100 years of MG Motor … how Bernard Maisner adapted calligraphy to the present … the best coffee-table books of the year … Cast your vote in this week’s Attention-Whore Index Poll!

But First …
Issue No. 283

The View from Here Rich Cohen had always felt ambivalent about his name—until he attended a convention of Richard Cohens

By Rich Cohen
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
School of Hard Knocks

Chris Whittle’s Teachable Moment The charter-school entrepreneur went from being one of the most acclaimed operators in the education sphere to losing everything. Will he be able to make a comeback?

By William D. Cohan
Read On
Power Trip

Moscow Rolls Out the Red Carpet The Assads haven’t just lost control of Syria, they’ve killed the Russian dream of a foothold in the Middle East. Now exiled in Moscow, they face a life of irrelevance and being ignored by Putin

By Simon Sebag Montefiore
Read On
Match Made in MAGA Heaven

When Donald Met Elon What would Freud say about the Trump-Musk bromance?

By David Christopher Kaufman
Read On
Air Supply

Big Apple Christmas

The tree at Rockefeller Center. Skating at Wollman Rink. The windows at Bergdorf Goodman. Holiday gridlock. Be a part of it. AIR SUPPLY brings the holiday spirit of New York City to you
Shop
Photo: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images (Rowlands)
Guest Edit

Miracle Below 14th Street

Jody Williams and Rita Sodi have built a wonderful life in the West Village. The chefs and partners preside over a mini-empire of some of the best restaurants in New York: Via Carota, I Sodi, Buvette, Bar Pisellino, and the Commerce Inn. Their holidays are filled with food and neighborhood charm
Read On
Small Talk
Year in Review

AIR MAIL’s Inaugural Over-Under List From raw milk to Luigi Mangione’s eyebrow specialist, this year’s most overhyped and underhyped things

By Jeanne Malle
Read On
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Bashar al-Assad flees, Juan Soto increases his fees, and the Trump nominees continue to displease

Read On
A Golden Era

The Place to Be For a few short years in the 1970s, New Times magazine punched way above its weight, tackling the big issues of the day while elevating a new generation of writers

By Alex Belth
Read On
Highlight

Rock v. Wade Singing and abortion rights converge in 1972, a new rock opera from the musician and activist Chadwick Stokes, produced by Laurie David and Sybil Gallagher

By Elena Clavarino
Read On
Best
LISTEN Arctic Outpost Radio On the hour, you’ll hear some old-fashioned interval signal chimes, followed by the magical… SPARKLE Vhernier For most of us, putting a Constantin Brâncuși sculpture on our Christmas wishlist is out of the question, but all is not lost… SCROLL The Gimlet Eye British writer and Air Mail contributor Daisy Dawnay is fixated (in a good way) on the makings of a beautiful and happy… WEAR Delphine Designer Tanya Taylor has an alter ego and fictional muse, Delphine, and she likes to party. After Taylor’s namesake brand celebrated its… GIFT Metrograph The best gifts are like a great dream, both familiar and totally out of the blue. So when the Metrograph, New York’s beloved… READ Brightly Shining If there’s one thing the Nordics know how to do it’s cozy, and this little novella by the Norwegian writer Ingvild Rishoi … LISTEN Arctic Outpost Radio On the hour, you’ll hear some old-fashioned interval signal chimes, followed by the magical… SPARKLE Vhernier For most of us, putting a Constantin Brâncuși sculpture on our Christmas wishlist is out of the question, but all is not lost… SCROLL The Gimlet Eye British writer and Air Mail contributor Daisy Dawnay is fixated (in a good way) on the makings of a beautiful and happy… WEAR Delphine Designer Tanya Taylor has an alter ego and fictional muse, Delphine, and she likes to party. After Taylor’s namesake brand celebrated its… GIFT Metrograph The best gifts are like a great dream, both familiar and totally out of the blue. So when the Metrograph, New York’s beloved… READ Brightly Shining If there’s one thing the Nordics know how to do it’s cozy, and this little novella by the Norwegian writer Ingvild Rishoi …
Cars

Scooting Through Scotland To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beloved MG, our car columnist takes the company’s new E.V. offering on a grand tour of the British motherland

By Jamie Kitman
Read On
Design for Living

Open House From Lake Garda to a quaint Finnish town, Majorca to the California coast, we highlight 10 Iconic Houses—a network of 20th-century-design treasures—worth visiting

By Patricia Zohn
Read On
Open Book

AIR MAIL’s Best Coffee-Table Books of 2024 Dazzling volumes on Rosario Candela’s New York City penthouses and David Hockney’s works on paper, plus photography collections from Ernest Cole, Eve Arnold, and Ruth Orkin and a look inside an Italian home or two

By Jeanne Malle
8
Clockwise from top left: The Gourmand’s Lemon: A Collection of Stories and Recipes; Marilyn Monroe: By Eve Arnold; Hokusai; The Package Holiday: 1965–1985, by Jake Clark.
Clockwise from left: 1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times, edited by Tony Nourmand; Chess Players: From Charlie Chaplin to Wu-Tang Clan; I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture; Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas, by Anouk Masson Krantz.
Clockwise from top: Jonathan Becker: Lost Time, by Jonathan Becker; George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film, edited by Susanna Brown; 18th Century Style, by Sophie Motsch and Emmanuel Sarméo; Rosario Candela & the New York Apartment, 1927–1937: The Architecture of the Age, by David Netto, Paul Goldberger, and Peter Pennoyer.
Clockwise from top left: Life. Hollywood; Man Ray: Genius of Light, 1890–1976; David Hockney: Paper Trails; Garry Winogrand: Winogrand Color.
Clockwise from top left: Looking at Trees, by Sophie Howarth; Amalfi Houses: Architectural Gems on the Italian Coast, by Ana Cardinale; Leonardo da Vinci and the Perfumes of the Renaissance; Brutalist Plants, by Olivia Broome.
Clockwise from left: Ernest Cole: The True America; Annie Leibovitz: At Work; Peter Moore: Sneaker Legend; The Art of Play, by Emmy Watts.
Clockwise from top: Rosario Candela & the New York Apartment, 1927–1937; Ruth Orkin: Women; African Arts: The Impossible Collection; The Queen of the Dolomites: Living in Cortina d’Ampezzo, by Servane Giol.
Clockwise from top left: Fashion First, by Diane Keaton; The Henry Clay Frick Houses, by Martha Frick Symington Sanger; Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan, edited by Patrick Remy; New York: High Life/Low Life, by Dafydd Jones.
Read On
Small Talk
“It’s hard not to take a mutiny personally.”
“It’s hard not to take a mutiny personally.”
Elements of Style

Hotel Couture The staff uniforms at the new Peninsula hotel, in London, rival the fashions of the hotel’s beau monde guests

By Ashley Baker
Read On
Highlight
Jean-Luc Godard and Jean Seberg on the set of Breathless (1960).

Going, Going … Godard

Before Jean-Luc Godard’s assisted suicide, on September 13, 2022—at his home in Rolle, Switzerland, where such a procedure is legal—the 91-year-old auteur had been in a remarkably prolific phase of his long career. “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted,” an unnamed family member said of his intention to end his life. “It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.” READ ON

Read On
Stationery’s Star

Letter Head Master calligrapher Bernard Maisner may be living in a digital world, but he’s never been more in demand

By William Norwich
Read On
After Hours

A Night Celebrating Conclave Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio del Toro, and others gathered at Keens on December 5 for an AIR MAIL and PEN America dinner for the film and its director, Edward Berger

By Nathan King
Photographs by Daniel Paik
6
Top, Benicio del Toro and Patricia Clarkson; above, John Lithgow and Ralph Fiennes.
Top, Patricia Clarkson, Graydon Carter, and Edward Berger; above, Laura Day and Stephen Graham.
Top, Stéphane Fontaine; above, Sophie Huber, Alexandra Styron, and Laura Bickford.
Top, A. M. Homes and Razia Iqbal; above, Stephen Schiff and Edward Berger.
Top, Benicio del Toro and Ralph Fiennes; above, Laura Bickford and Graydon Carter.
Top, Jon Yaged; above, Cherry Jones.
Close-up

Pia Mance How the creator behind the viral jewelry brand Heaven Mayhem brought back 80s-style earrings—and got Hailey Bieber to wear them

By Elena Clavarino
Read On
Books
Tim Bouverie On

The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs

by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Read On
Listen

Lunch with Ted Sarandos On this week’s episode of Table for Two, the Netflix co-C.E.O. tells host Bruce Bozzi how the idea for the streaming company all started with a $40 late charge for an Apollo 13 rental

Read On
Murder, They Wrote

Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch Hunker down with the holiday season’s best mysteries

By Lisa Henricksson
Read On
View With a Room

Magic Mountain In a sleepy corner of Spain, the Roca family has created a gastronomic empire. As their new hotel proves, they are also masters of simplicity

By Alexander Lobrano
Read On
Small Talk
“Hi, honey, could you run by the bookstore on the way home? We’re almost out of poetry.”
“Hi, honey, could you run by the bookstore on the way home? We’re almost out of poetry.”
Listen

Inside AIR MAIL’s 2024 Over-Under List On this week’s podcast, Jeanne Malle tells us about the people and things that were over- (and under-) hyped this year

Read On
The Imperfect Ending

Lisa Kudrow

The Emmy-winning actress and Friends co-star shares her least favorite things
Read On
Drew Friedman’s Sketchbook
Jack Davis (1924–2016) was possibly the most ubiquitous humor illustrator of all time. A master cartoonist and caricaturist, his instantly recognizable, beautifully rendered artwork graced the covers of countless magazines, such as Mad, Cracked, TV Guide, and Time, not to mention comic books, paperbacks, movie posters, and record albums. The king of the mind-bogglingly large-crowd scene was also one of the fastest illustrators around: this quiet Southern gentleman was usually finished with his daily assignments by 2:30 p.m. and out on the golf course. After Davis was hired to create the memorably manic poster art for the 1963 film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World—jammed with dozens of boldface names—he soon became the most in-demand film-comedy poster artist in the world. Davis’s 100th birthday was December 2.
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Creative Director

Angela Panichi

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Editor at Large

George Pendle

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Senior Editor

Elena Clavarino

Investigations Editor

Clara Molot

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Research & Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editors

Carolina de Armas Lucy Horowitz Jeanne Malle Paulina Prosnitz Jack Sullivan

Art Director

Paloma Huerre

Senior Photo Editor

Emine Gözde Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

Communications Director

Harrison Vail

Columnists

Dana Brown Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson
Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson
John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells
James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Bridget Arsenault Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Spike Carter Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin Sam Wasson

Contributing Artists

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Pip Carter Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

Head of Audience Development

Rachel LeSage

Audience Growth Manager

Merritt Johnson

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Technology

Brooks Oakley Justin Rubaloff

OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Bill Keenan and Emily Davis

Air Supply General Manager and Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Business Development Director

Catherine Scott

European Sales Director

Selim Mataraci

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Chief Strategy Adviser

Adam Mendelsohn

Chief Merchant

Jennifer Noyes

Shop Editor

Jessica Iredale

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

E-commerce Associate

Lilly Schoenbaum

In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Duncan Hannah Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley David Yaffe

Issue No. 283
December 14, 2024
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Issue No. 283
December 14, 2024
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