{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"April 18, 2026 – Air Mail","description":"Welcome to Air Mail Issue number 353.","favicon":"https://static.airmail.news/assets/icons/apple-touch-icon.png","home_page_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18","feed_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18.json","items":[{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-view-from-here","title":"The View from Here","content_text":"Heaven help us if Trump ever learns the old anti-Catholic slur “Papist,” because he’ll start hurling it at everyone who rushed to Pope Leo’s defense this week. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the radical left, and focus on being a great pope, not a politician,” Trump wrote, reacting to the Pontiff’s subtle but ongoing criticisms of his foreign policy. He doubled down hours later, posting an A.I.-generated, Christ-like image of his orange likeness draped in white and red robes, bathed in divine light.The backlash came almost immediately, from the likes of Stephen Colbert (Papist!), Maria Shriver (Papist!), Italian prime minister ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-view-from-here","summary":"Heaven help us if Trump ever learns the old anti-Catholic slur “Papist,” because he’ll start hurling it at everyone who rushed to Pope Leo’s defense this week. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering...","tags":["The View from Here","But First ..."],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/esaaxr5baf09ahtw8u4ldbj6mnw0-a77afc9924c68852a99d6e0dad7bd539.jpg","author":{"name":"Carolina de Armas"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/carolina-de-armas\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eCarolina \u003cem\u003ede\u003c/em\u003e Armas\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Beloved by young American Catholics, Pope Leo offers something that Trump never will—peace of mind","shorts":false,"banner":"But First ...","category":"The View from Here"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/barry-blitts-sketchbook","title":"Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/barry-blitts-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Barry Blitt's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/o4eoma51ca3n9yuy8076avvoqij3-5f7e6ef2181bef978898017ea47395e8.png","author":{"name":"Barry Blitt"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/barry-blitt\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eBarry Blitt\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Barry Blitt's Sketchbook","category":"Sketchbook"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/edge-lord","title":"Edge Lord","content_text":"It’s one of the more baffling aspects of a story with no shortage of them: What was Jeffrey Epstein, a college dropout and convicted sex offender, doing with all those intellectuals, scientists, and Nobel laureates? It’s fairly obvious what was in it for him. But why these luminaries would have chosen to associate with him has perplexed even seasoned Epstein-watchers.Their presence in Epstein’s circle makes a great deal more sense when one understands the role played by John Brockman, a leading publishing agent—though he seems to have preferred the term “cultural impresario”—who has been variously described as Epstein’s ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/edge-lord","summary":"It’s one of the more baffling aspects of a story with no shortage of them: What was Jeffrey Epstein, a college dropout and convicted sex offender, doing with all those intellectuals, scientists, and Nobel laureates? It’s fairly obvious what was...","tags":["Crime and Scandal","friend of the devil"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/qkvgtka6bwofsitm6ybugipiqcrn-f94cb9e43ca129d050b5a7268b743a8f.png","author":{"name":"Sam Kahn"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/sam-kahn\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eSam Kahn\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Literary agent John Brockman knows everybody who’s anybody in science. Thanks to him, so did Jeffrey Epstein","shorts":false,"banner":"friend of the devil","category":"Crime and Scandal"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/lena-dunham-reveals-all","title":"Lena Dunham Reveals All","content_text":"If there is something to be learned from the words people pick for their passwords and proxies, then Lena Dunham’s choice of aliases – pseudonyms that, as a public person, she has used over the years to conceal her identity when checking into rehab or ordering room service – give us a tiny glimpse into the writer and director’s self-image. Among her staples, “Lauri Reynolds” (after her mum, Laurie, with whom she is strikingly close); “Rose O’Neill” (after the American millionaire illustrator, who lost her fortune to burnout and hangers-on); and my favorite, “Renata Halpern”, an alias Dunham shares with readers of her delicious new memoir, ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/lena-dunham-reveals-all","summary":"If there is something to be learned from the words people pick for their passwords and proxies, then Lena Dunham’s choice of aliases – pseudonyms that, as a public person, she has used over the years to conceal her identity...","tags":["Books","Girl, Interrupted"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/2dyzf7teagu4v0gq7b6n3b6yksd6-26e9fb9a89e1676c88cf4ad45d8c23d8.png","author":{"name":"Emma Brockes"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/emma-brockes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEmma Brockes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"In her new memoir, \u003cem\u003eFamesick, \u003c/em\u003ethe actor-writer-director revisits the awful men (Jack Antonoff, Adam Driver), the difficult women (her business partner, her mother), and the social-media flaying that almost destroyed her","shorts":false,"banner":"Girl, Interrupted","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/bright-lights-big-vintage","title":"Bright Lights, Big Vintage","content_text":"Generally speaking, the wine at large parties and galas tends to be despicable. Friends of mine just go with vodka or tequila. But I’m an oenophile, and I often bring my own wine, which is just what I did the other night when my wife and Air Mail co-hosted a party for me at the Odeon to celebrate the publication of my new novel, See You on the Other Side.The setting was appropriate from a literary and a personal point of view—I’ve been going there since the place opened in 1980, when it became virtually the first hip ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/bright-lights-big-vintage","summary":"Generally speaking, the wine at large parties and galas tends to be despicable. Friends of mine just go with vodka or tequila. But I’m an oenophile, and I often bring my own wine, which is just what I did the...","tags":["Food and Drink","The Last Vice"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/tke57j17me9kvnfqp31z52ecrezu-fac91cca6024b10457a221c4d5c5a96d.jpg","author":{"name":"Jay McInerney"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jay-mcinerney\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJay M\u003cem\u003ec\u003c/em\u003eInerney\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"In his debut column for AIR MAIL, which will cover all manner of drinking and partying, Jay McInerney sets the scene of a dinner at the Odeon in celebration of his last Calloway novel—magnums of Meursault, six-liter bottles of first-growth Bordeaux, and all","shorts":false,"banner":"The Last Vice","category":"Food and Drink"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/cutting-corners","title":"Cutting Corners","content_text":"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art was founded in 1961 to show the world that Los Angeles deserved to be taken seriously. Like New York, Chicago, Boston, and so many other American cities, it, too, could have a large, comprehensive, important art museum that would give tourists someplace to go that wasn’t Disneyland or a Hollywood movie studio.Over the years, LACMA has grown to be the largest art museum in the western United States and has a serious and wide-ranging collection, but it has always seemed caught between its desire to transcend its city’s identity and its desire to embrace it. And that is a big part of the problem with its new building, the David Geffen Galleries, which opens next month. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/cutting-corners","summary":"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art was founded in 1961 to show the world that Los Angeles deserved to be taken seriously. Like New York, Chicago, Boston, and so many other American cities, it, too, could have a large,...","tags":["Design","Architecture"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/qi1wmrfj5pia3wch8r377ienb40e-3bcf87d3fd5350d5ca5b7d00640843d4.png","author":{"name":"Paul Goldberger"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/paul-goldberger\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003ePaul Goldberger\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Peter Zumthor’s freeway-like design for LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries is daring but disappointing","shorts":false,"banner":"Architecture","category":"Design"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-air-mail-diary","title":"The AIR MAIL Diary","content_text":"It’s easy to imagine, as the United States continues to reckon with its relentless Golden Era, that little of interest could possibly be going on anywhere else in the world. Not even in, say, Gilgil, Kenya, where the annual rainy season’s illegal trade in flying ants has taken off. “The mating ritual sees winged males leave the nest to impregnate queens, who also take flight at this time,” the BBC reported. “This makes it the perfect time to chase down queen ants to sell on to smugglers who are at the heart of a growing global black market, that taps into the pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony.” A single ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-air-mail-diary","summary":"It’s easy to imagine, as the United States continues to reckon with its relentless Golden Era, that little of interest could possibly be going on anywhere else in the world. Not even in, say, Gilgil, Kenya, where the annual rainy...","tags":["News","News of the World"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/1sksp5tqbio5cqw6yhr22yw8wfom-2039f1718fcb31778d5058e699caba65.jpg","author":{"name":"George Kalogerakis"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/george-kalogerakis\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGeorge Kalogerakis\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"King Charles is vibrating with gardening joy, Eric Adams is Albania’s golden boy, and other strange stories from around the globe …","shorts":false,"banner":"News of the World","category":"News"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/vermeer","title":"Vermeer","content_text":"For two centuries after his death, in 1675, Johannes Vermeer was pretty much a forgotten artist; it took a French critic in the","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/vermeer","summary":"For two centuries after his death, in 1675, Johannes Vermeer was pretty much a forgotten artist; it took a French critic in the","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/tccy1tn7ikdlvvabvb4kphb2mxql-061cc573d87ce90d5c3cf3b2291cb3bd.png","author":{"name":"Jim Kelly"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jim-kelly\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJim Kelly\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"read","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/blunk-shop","title":"Blunk Shop","content_text":"Sculptor JB Blunk was one of California’s greatest back-to-the-land and made-by-hand artists. His lifelong practice of Zen ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/blunk-shop","summary":"Sculptor JB Blunk was one of California’s greatest back-to-the-land and made-by-hand artists. His lifelong practice of Zen ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/7wcyum1cbgzr17pzfp0qg09iz3dq-4eecaf0abf09f6eddce1304c34a9e16b.png","author":{"name":"Spike Carter"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/spike-carter\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eSpike Carter\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"sip","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/reefer-madness","title":"Reefer Madness","content_text":"Despite its intention to scare teenagers straight, Reefer Madness is best watched high. The 1936 propaganda film ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/reefer-madness","summary":"Despite its intention to scare teenagers straight, Reefer Madness is best watched high. The 1936 propaganda film ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8z8lho1t2nzx7lulxewmoy5ofd23-2a1585a864d9e67627c6ae04c807a2c5.png","author":{"name":"Eve Eismann"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eve-eismann\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEve Eismann\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"watch","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/la-ligne","title":"La Ligne","content_text":"It’s been 10 years since La Ligne made the striped sweater feel like a personality trait and quietly revamped the modern basics. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/la-ligne","summary":"It’s been 10 years since La Ligne made the striped sweater feel like a personality trait and quietly revamped the modern basics. ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/4og1zdhmoyhfrcv1yu0wxz33tglf-f5bf946bca28cd9d152d2a7c52aa086e.png","author":{"name":"Jennifer Noyes"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jennifer-noyes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJennifer Noyes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"shop","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/ambiguous-desire","title":"Ambiguous Desire","content_text":"To be lost on the floor of a nightclub, dancing without abandon, is a euphoric feeling I wish I could bottle up forever. Luckily, ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/ambiguous-desire","summary":"To be lost on the floor of a nightclub, dancing without abandon, is a euphoric feeling I wish I could bottle up forever. Luckily, ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/nabyx356ce53m46jwdhpmpdnewlx-17d21e13f0696fa76f8327e2273a70ef.png","author":{"name":"Maggie Turner"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/maggie-turner\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMaggie Turner\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"listen","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/lives-of-the-saints","title":"Lives of the Saints","content_text":"New York Review Books has done the world a solid by republishing Nancy Lemann’s 1985 cult novel, Lives of the Saints.","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/lives-of-the-saints","summary":"New York Review Books has done the world a solid by republishing Nancy Lemann’s 1985 cult novel, Lives of the Saints.","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/lrpk4xaqfsz8n3i20n8wikde8kal-8e1266827da5742dcffc51b9edacd5b5.png","author":{"name":"Paulina Prosnitz"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/paulina-prosnitz\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003ePaulina Prosnitz\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"read","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/small-town-girl","title":"Small Town Girl","content_text":"Jayne Anne Phillips was just 26 when her first book of short stories, the 1976 collection Black Tickets, was published to a howl of praise. Such sudden attention can be disorienting to a young writer, but Phillips says, “From the very beginning, I paid no attention. I felt that I had to protect myself.... So in some ways I probably didn’t take advantage of it as I might have. I just ignored it.”With influences ranging from Arthur Rimbaud and William S. Burroughs to Katherine Anne Porter and Flannery O’Connor, her lush, elegiac fiction also invokes William Faulkner’s Southern ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/small-town-girl","summary":"Jayne Anne Phillips was just 26 when her first book of short stories, the 1976 collection Black Tickets, was published to a howl of praise. Such sudden attention can be disorienting to a young writer, but Phillips says, “From the...","tags":["Books","Adventures in Literature"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/pr0zi03tnj3qrcwau2mgpk129yyb-c884239b35dcf4b1d04d68bf4535737c.png","author":{"name":"Nancy Schoenberger"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/nancy-schoenberger\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eNancy Schoenberger\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Jayne Anne Phillips was a literary wunderkind who counted Sam Shepard and Jim Harrison among her fans. Her latest book revisits her childhood in rural Appalachia","shorts":false,"banner":"Adventures in Literature","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/a-night-celebrating-jay-mcinerney","title":"A Night Celebrating Jay McInerney","content_text":"In Woody Allen’s 2011 film, Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson’s character, a floundering writer, travels back in time to the Paris of the 1920s, where he meets Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway.Guests passing through the doors of the Odeon on Monday night experienced something similar. “It’s like 1982 all over again!,” Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin pronounced gleefully. Inside, Jay McInerney, who immortalized the Tribeca brasserie in his 1984 novel, Bright Lights, Big City, held court among the mass of well-wishers invited by AIR MAIL editor Julia Vitale to celebrate the final installment of his Calloway tetralogy, ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/a-night-celebrating-jay-mcinerney","summary":"In Woody Allen’s 2011 film, Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson’s character, a floundering writer, travels back in time to the Paris of the 1920s, where he meets Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway.Guests passing through the...","tags":["Style","After Hours"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/2ek2mlm8rd0ov4m4tfvdnoeb7tou-05c2972b4d7a0fd872e95b61c0cd4e34.png","author":{"name":"Paulina Prosnitz"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/paulina-prosnitz\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003ePaulina Prosnitz\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Emily Ratajkowski, Eric Ripert, Cynthia Rowley, and others gathered at the Odeon in Tribeca to celebrate Jay McInerney’s new novel and the launch of his AIR MAIL column","shorts":false,"banner":"After Hours","category":"Style"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/when-peter-met-paul","title":"When Peter Met Paul","content_text":"Andrew Durbin picked a good title for his dual biography of the artist Paul Thek and the photographer Peter Hujar, sometime lovers and longtime friends. The Wonderful World That Almost Was is the story of their occasional work-life highs—Thek’s museum shows, Hujar’s magazine work—but also of the career costs of both men’s dismissal of mere commercial success. To complicate matters, they were part of a now vanished downtown-Manhattan scene, where pleasures and distractions were plentiful—sometimes too plentiful—but money? Not so much.These days, Thek seems always on the verge of being forgotten. And Hujar has never quite gained the instant name recognition he deserves—though a recent film about him might help. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/when-peter-met-paul","summary":"Andrew Durbin picked a good title for his dual biography of the artist Paul Thek and the photographer Peter Hujar, sometime lovers and longtime friends. The Wonderful World That Almost Was is the story of their occasional work-life highs—Thek’s museum...","tags":["Books"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/22z6rzwq19jo7zvpio0ua5e44ozq-3995f7aff6dc9afca03046cd1d281874.jpg","author":{"name":"Richard Lacayo"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/richard-lacayo\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eRichard Lacayo\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Books","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/an-american-in-paris","title":"An American in Paris","content_text":"The 71-year-old Alexander Calder was standing just outside Perls Galleries on upper Madison Avenue, looking at the terrazzo sidewalk he’d designed—a euphoric interaction of curves and grids. The occasion was a soigné charity benefit celebrating the installation, that rare instance when the public and private sectors have worked together to add pulse and joy to city life. The women in the gallery were society types who resembled the early wire sculpture that Calder called “The Debutante’s Mother,” while the men were mainly bankers in pinstripe suits. The artist, meanwhile, wore a red-plaid flannel shirt and workman’s trousers. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/an-american-in-paris","summary":"The 71-year-old Alexander Calder was standing just outside Perls Galleries on upper Madison Avenue, looking at the terrazzo sidewalk he’d designed—a euphoric interaction of curves and grids. The occasion was a soigné charity benefit celebrating the installation, that rare instance...","tags":["Culture","Highlight"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/kku44uk8a2btlawgxdyxdm2b4fnk-9a56e5e89b6d9b38697103596b37f66d.jpg","author":{"name":"Nicholas Fox Weber"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/nicholas-fox-weber\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eNicholas Fox Weber\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Wire acrobats, floating mobiles, wooden figures … Celebrating the centenary of Alexander Calder’s years living in the French capital, an exhibition presents more than 300 of his works","shorts":false,"banner":"Highlight","category":"Culture"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/sophie-lou-jacobsen","title":"Sophie Lou Jacobsen","content_text":"If the name Sophie Lou Jacobsen doesn’t ring a bell, her designs very well might. There are a few ways that could be true: should you be on the houseware side of the Instagram algorithm, Jacobsen’s wavy glass Ripple Cup, which went viral in 2020, surely appeared on your feed; should you be an art-history person, her wiggly, neon-pop silhouettes might call to mind Ettore Sottsass’s Memphis Group; and should you be an avid New York Times reader, you’d know Jacobsen as the woman leading a new wave of a budding design movement described last fall in a story titled “Glassware Is Getting Weird and Wobbly.” ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/sophie-lou-jacobsen","summary":"If the name Sophie Lou Jacobsen doesn’t ring a bell, her designs very well might. There are a few ways that could be true: should you be on the houseware side of the Instagram algorithm, Jacobsen’s wavy glass Ripple Cup,...","tags":["Design","Close-up"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/9i75rwn5m3yr37fz1zft2wes2g8q-1534784acc53354b5a5a2d5cce4b107b.png","author":{"name":"Elena Clavarino"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/elena-clavarino\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eElena Clavarino\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Inspired by the Memphis Group and known for her playful, wavy home goods, the French-American designer is now channeling Italo disco in a new series unveiled at Milan’s Salone del Mobile","shorts":false,"banner":"Close-up","category":"Design"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-secret-life-of-kurt-vonnegut","title":"The Secret Life of Kurt Vonnegut","content_text":"“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow,” wrote the indomitable Kurt Vonnegut in A Man Without a Country. Practicing what he preached, the acclaimed author of 14 satirical novels and countless short stories also dabbled in doodling, often with a felt-tip pen in the margins of his manuscripts. “This isn’t very good, is it?” he once asked his daughter Nanette about a drawing. It wasn’t, she said. He burned it.We will never know how many doodles were set aflame, but Phaidon has managed to collect 150 survivors. Its coffee-table book ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/the-secret-life-of-kurt-vonnegut","summary":"“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow,” wrote the indomitable Kurt Vonnegut in A Man Without a Country. Practicing what he preached, the acclaimed author of 14 satirical novels and...","tags":["Books","Open Book"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/1so1zzeqlyhi9uc65a8ijqm4ykvw-5ae83f4906a82c1c4d2b6440c075083d.png","author":{"name":"Carolina de Armas"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/carolina-de-armas\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eCarolina \u003cem\u003ede\u003c/em\u003e Armas\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A new coffee-table book reveals the satirist as a visual artist, collecting 150 whimsical doodles that his daughter Nanette, who also writes the introduction, kept private for decades","shorts":false,"banner":"Open Book","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/new-kids-on-the-dock","title":"New Kids on the Dock","content_text":"Ever since the four Sersale siblings—Aldo, Paolo, Anna, and Franco—turned their family’s summer retreat in Positano into an eight-room buen retiro in 1951, welcoming Americans and Brits just beginning to explore postwar Italy, they’ve stood as the unofficial first family of the Amalfi Coast. In 1953, John Steinbeck spent time with Paolo and immortalized the town in an essay for Harper’s Bazaar. Later, Franco spent decades scouring auction houses, filling the halls with the museum-quality antiques guests still admire today.Over time, their buen retiro, with its breathtaking views of Positano’s harbor, has expanded to encompass 58 rooms, becoming one of the world’s great five-star hotels. Still, ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/new-kids-on-the-dock","summary":"Ever since the four Sersale siblings—Aldo, Paolo, Anna, and Franco—turned their family’s summer retreat in Positano into an eight-room buen retiro in 1951, welcoming Americans and Brits just beginning to explore postwar Italy, they’ve stood as the unofficial first family...","tags":["Travel"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8r3rgu8d2diaptd4wxz3bbaw0ebx-3a3919a5e6984b823887d3e84806908e.jpg","author":{"name":"Michael Hainey"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/michael-hainey\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMichael Hainey\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Le Sirenuse, the family-run hotel in Positano, is opening a new beach club on its 75th anniversary—and welcoming the next generation of Sersales","shorts":false,"banner":"Travel","category":"Travel"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/ross-macdonalds-sketchbook","title":"Ross MacDonald’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18/ross-macdonalds-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Ross MacDonald's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8xjtcb0fam3g0tf8qhq3rwldb2w1-e213a4537e0de183ed943ba1821cd606.jpg","author":{"name":"Ross MacDonald"},"date_published":"2026-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"April 18, 2026","date":"2026-04-18","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-4-18"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/ross-macdonald\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eRoss M\u003cem\u003eac\u003c/em\u003eDonald\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Ross MacDonald's Sketchbook","category":"Sketchbook"}}]}