This Day In Irony

I’ve alluded elsewhere to the fascinating way in which Obama parlayed his mixed African American (as opposed to African-American) heritage so as to occupy a space in American cultural and political life just ever-so-different from that occupied by black Americans generally and other black . . . . Continue Reading »

IKEA and the Disposable Economy

Megan , who’s started a dialogue with Ellen Ruppel Shell (author of the new book Cheap ), has some ruminations on the infamous maker of shelves with short shelf lives. Lots to digest, including some deee-lightful ancedotes from the bad old days of furniture so durable you seemed to be stuck . . . . Continue Reading »

A Social History of the Cocktail

By Robert Messenger: The cocktail is a lovely simple thing: a mixture of spirits and flavorings that whets the appetite, pleases the eye, and stimulates the mind. It is one of our conspicuous contributions to cultured living, up there with the Great American Songbook and the tuxedo. Yet, like . . . . Continue Reading »

Brague and The Law of God

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has an online symposium on the always interesting and provocative Rémi Brague and his book The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea . From the first installment : The Law of God is Brague’s second magisterial work of intellectual history. . . . . Continue Reading »

Our New Address

First Things has moved—to new offices, just around the corner: First Things 35 East 21st Street Sixth Floor New York, New York 10010-6261 All our phone lines and email addresses will remain the same, but be sure to direct all your paper correspondence to the new address. . . . . Continue Reading »

Mooses—Again

My friend John Podhoretz wrote to point out that, in posting on the Moose Menorah, I’d forgotten a key moment in the history of Jews and Moose—Woody Allen on the how the Moose went to a party and . . . . Continue Reading »