Category Archives: Culture

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – August 19, 2024

An illustration of a man on a beach.

The New Yorker (August 12, 2024): The latest issue features Charles Addams’s “Ascent” – A fresh printing of an age-old gag.

Funny/Unfunny: The Archival Comedy Issue

Do jokes express our otherwise taboo wishes? Or does everyone just need a pie in the face? By Emma Allen

In Search of the World’s Funniest Joke

The semi-serious science of why we laugh. By Tad Friend

Charlie Chaplin and the Business of Living

Chaplin’s epochal fame has tended to obscure the influences and instincts that infused his art with childlike purity.

Reviews: Remembering The Paris 2024 Olympic Games

CBS Mornings (August 10, 2024): After the Olympics comes the Olympic Museum – a site to commemorate the athleticism and sportsmanship that was displayed during the Games. Museum workers are already busy preparing for the museum to remember the Paris Olympics. Dana Jacobson has more.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – August 7, 2024

Country Life Magazine (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Huts for Heroes’ – Where adventures start…

A consolation and pleasure

Could Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, be considered an architect? He thought so — and Michael Hall tends to agree

The legacy

Carla Passino salutes the modest Henry Tate, whose name will live forever in the art world

The secret history of flowers

Healing, revealing, defence against thieving, our wildflowers’ names tell the story of our ancestors. John Lewis-Stempel reads the leaves

Up where the air is clear

An Antarctic explorer’s base or a Scottish fisherman’s shelter, the humble hut is a crucial element in stirring tales. Robin Ashcroft opens the doors

You rang, your majesty?

Even the most distasteful jobs could offer compensations to savvy servants in the Royal Household, finds Susan Jenkins

Going Dutch

The great Netherlandish masters have no equal in admirers and influence, believes Michael Hall

Harriet Hastings’s favourite painting

The biscuiteer picks a haunting scene in a lonely hotel room

Against the Grain

Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the memory of a farmer, honest broadcaster and dear friend

Bottoms up

What do the white behinds of rabbits, deer and foxes really say? Laura Parker deciphers scuts, rumps and rears

Summer’s last stand

Securing the harvest is the weather watcher’s concern in August, says Lia Leendertz

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell wraps up in style ready to hit the beach

Interiors

A party-ready sitting room and stylish touches for a home office

London Life

  • Rooftop cocktails
  • Wiggy Hindmarch, wine cellars and rosebay willowherb
  • William Hosie’s capital characters
  • Richard MacKichan on the British Museum Reading Room’s return

Presiding spirits

The fourth generation to nurture the garden of Glin Castle, Co Limerick, Ireland, is doing her predecessors proud. Caroline Donald explores a windswept haven beside the Shannon

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson conjures up treats with courgette flowers

It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it

Even the tiniest town garden can offer views and wildlife to rival open countryside, believes city dweller Jonathan Notley

Travel

Pamela Goodman gives in to whimsy in Wales

Harry Hastings delights in the Art Deco Hotel Casa Lucía in Argentina

Rosie Paterson rounds up the best new openings in Greece

Medieval Italy: “Echoes Of Popes & Power” In Anagni

TRACKS – Travel Documentaries (August 6, 2024): Anagni, a medieval jewel in Italy’s crown, whispers the echoes of popes and ancient power through its storied streets and majestic cathedral. Its intricate Cosmatesque art and historical significance paint a vivid portrait of a city that has long been a beacon of spiritual and artistic heritage.

Arts/Politics: The Atlantic Magazine – September 2024

Image

The Atlantic Magazine – August 6, 2024: The latest issue features “Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap,” and the Impossible Path to America….

Seventy Miles in Hell

The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States.

Iranian Insiders Warn That Attacking Israel Is a Trap

Some say a big war will help the country’s enemies. But is anyone listening?

The Well-Off People Who Can’t Spend Money

Tightwads drag around a phantom limb of poverty, no matter what their bank account says.

Previews: The Progressive Magazine- Aug/Sept 2024

The Progressive Magazine - Reporting the truth since 1909. - Progressive.org

theprogressive Magazine (August 5, 2024):

Dark Money Uncovered

Corporate news media too often miss the pervasive influence of unaccountable election spending.

‘None of the Above’: Exposing Election Year News Abuse

As framed by corporate news media, presidential elections have become as formulaic as a Hallmark holiday movie. 

Navigating the Digital Democracy

Social media has the power to influence voters.

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – August 12, 2024

A worker stands in an icecream store with unusual flavors.

The New Yorker (August 5, 2024): The latest issue features Roz Chast’s “Flavor of the Week” – The artist’s enticing (and not so enticing) tweaks to one of summer’s enduring pleasures.

The Supreme Court Needs Fixing, But How?

President Biden has proposed radical changes to the Court. Reviewing them is a reminder of why reform is so hard, despite dissatisfaction and a wealth of ideas.

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

Kamala Harris and the Understudy Effect

Kamala Harris and the Understudy Effect

Julie Benko, who hit it big after going on in place of Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl,” has a lot of advice for the Vice-President, now that she’s done with waiting in the wings.

By Zach Helfand

What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want?

The third-party Presidential candidate has a troubled past, a shambolic campaign, and some surprisingly good poll numbers.

By Clare Malone

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – August 5, 2024

A person and a small child are together on a beach.

The New Yorker (July 30, 2024): The latest issue features Gayle Kabaker’s “Beach Walk” – The artist captures a sweet moment shared by her daughter and granddaughter.

Kamala Harris Isn’t Going Back

Kamala Harris Isn’t Going Back

Fifty years after Shirley Chisholm ran for the Presidency, we find ourselves yet again questioning the durability of outmoded presumptions about race and gender. By Jelani Cobb

The Republican National Convention and the Iconography of Triumph

In Milwaukee, with a candidate who had just cheated death, the resentment rhetoric of Trump’s 2016 campaign gave way to an atmosphere of festive certainty. By Anthony Lane

Gillian Anderson’s Sex Education

She became famous playing buttoned-up Agent Scully. But in midlife her characters often have a strong erotic charge—and now she’s edited “Want,” a book of sexual fantasies. By Rebecca Mead

Previews: Country Life Magazine – July 24, 2024

Country Life Magazine (July 23, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Talking Dogs’ – The secret language of the shepherd’s friends, Shooting on Lewis and fishing on the Test; Fired up – the foundry that made Trafalgar’s lions; Loving lapwings; Building with oak and summer in Paris….

Whistle while you work

It is mesmerising to watch one man and his dog moving a flock of sheep using a language all of their own. Katy Birchall admires the almost telepathic connection between sheepdog and handler

Who are you calling a peewit?

The pied plumage of the lapwing was once a common sight in our countryside and, as Vicky Liddell learns, moves are afoot to halt the beautiful bird’s decline

Heavy metal

The heat is on for Catriona Gray as she visits the UK’s oldest-surviving art foundry, now forging a successful future hidden away in the Hampshire countryside

The dogs that ask why

Patrick Galbraith is confounded by a case of mistaken canine identity when he embarks on a day of walked-up grouse shooting on the Isle of Lewis

The tale of the Croque Monsieur

Armed with an array of home-tied flies, David Profumo relishes pitting his wits against the wily trout of the South of England’s crystal-clear chalkstreams

From little acorns

We have been building with strong, sustainable and flexible oak since time immemorial — and the art continues to thrive, as Arabella Youens discovers

To Paris with love

The 1924 Olympics were the crowning glory of a golden age for culture in the French capital. Mary Miers looks back to an extraordinary, liberating time

Willie Hartley Russell’s favourite painting

The chairman of the Almshouse Association chooses a striking portrait of a remarkable man

Fitting like a glove

Jeremy Musson applauds the success of Woodford Hill Farm, a new country house perfect for its old Northamptonshire setting

The legacy

He is seldom given due credit, but there would be no modern Olympic Games without William Penny Brookes, finds Kate Green

As different as night and day

John Lewis-Stempel’s detour in Dorset is rewarded by an early-morning encounter with the enigmatic, elusive nightjar

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell is getting shirty with the best summer gents’ linens     

West is best

Eleanor Doughty explores the top places for London commuters to buy out west of the capital

The odd couple

Caroline Donald hails the marriage of a 200-year-old villa with a contemporary garden in Kent

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on cherries

Bay watch

The bay leaf wins the laurels as a symbol of strength, courage and wisdom, says Ian Morton

Our daily bread

Neil Buttery examines the rise of the Anglo-Saxon Lammas loaf

Travel & Nature: A Wildlife Tour Of The French Alps

TRACKS – Travel Documentaries (July 21, 2024): Delve into the natural wonders of the French Alps with “Great Places Of The World.” Witness the nesting rituals of storks, explore protected deciduous forests, and encounter elusive lynxes and mountain goats against the backdrop of Europe’s stunning alpine landscapes.

From the bustling activity of springtime storks to the tranquil beauty of northern forests, immerse yourself in the diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife of this enchanting region.