December 2019 Issue

FROM THE MAGAZINE

December 2019

‘A Democratic party a little less obsessed with digging around for presidential conspiracies and a little more eager to call out Trump for bad housekeeping might have a better chance of defeating him in 2020.’

The origins of ‘whilst’

It started off by displaying what is called the adverbial genitive

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine

Detroit’s comeback is a myth

The economy booms, the construction cranes jam the skylines while the homeless set up camp on the sidewalks and bathe in the public fountains

By Charlie LeDuff

From the Magazine

A bridge too far

I am a very demanding partner and, sometimes, unpleasant competition

By Daniella Greenbaum Davis

From the Magazine

Education

The real reason for college food fights

Scarcely a month passes without a food-related scandal causing uproar on campus

By Toby Young

From the Magazine

Politics

Trump vs the cities

Progressive leadership is destroying urban America

By Chadwick Moore

From the Magazine

Washington in winter

The city is quiescent if you compare it to London during Brexit, or New York or Rome during anything

By Christopher Caldwell

From the Magazine

What a drag: dress-up used to be fun. Now it is far too serious

Gender-bending as a good time is hardly done anymore. The rules are rigid

By Karol Markowicz

From the Magazine

Politics

Who likes Mike?

For the Democratic patriciate, a Bloomberg candidacy rests on the idea of a return to normalcy

By Jacob Heilbrunn

From the Magazine

Spectator Editorial

Forever in our debt

To be overspending to the extent that Trump is doing is to invite disaster

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Europe

Britain is dangerously close to having an overtly anti-American prime minister

What would that mean for the so-called special relationship?

By Ross Clark

From the Magazine

Politics

The Ukraine blame game

There was never anything in the great Ukrainian quid pro quo. It was props and stagecraft

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

Politics

GOP West: could Republicans have an Arizona advantage?

Tolerating illegal immigration might not be the winning issue Democrats have long assumed it to be

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

Internet

OK zoomer

It’s not us baby boomers who are the problem

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Art

Christmas crackers: the tragic soul of Natalie Cole

Natalie Cole had an instant pocket pop career. Her family, she said, were like ‘the black Kennedys’; and look how the Kennedys turned out

By Luke Haines

From the Magazine

Books

The boy on the hillside

A short story by Susan Hill

By Susan Hill

From the Magazine

Books

‘I was a tortured, obviously brilliant child’

James Ellroy talks drugs, God and his father’s penis

By Sam Leith

From the Magazine

Art

Star Wars: the force a-weakens

In space, no one can hear you yawn

By Ben Sixsmith

From the Magazine

Art

The call of the wild

Pod help you in the wilderness

By Emily Ferguson

From the Magazine

Art

Ave, Maria Grinberg

How the Soviets stopped you from hearing her Beethoven piano sonatas

By Damian Thompson

From the Magazine

Books

The Spectator’s Books of the Year 2019

Spectator contributors choose their favorite titles of 2019

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Books

The haunting of Russell Kirk

The founding father of 20th-century American conservatism was also a connoisseur of the supernatural and a bestselling novelist

By James Panero

From the Magazine

Books

We are all Greta now

A lot of children’s literature today is horribly right-on

By Melanie McDonagh

From the Magazine

Art

Leonardo da Virtual

Mass tourism has overwhelmed our major museums. Could virtual reality be the solution?

By Dominic Green

From the Magazine

Podcasts

The pod delusion

Why I hate all podcasts — even the ones I like

By Matt Labash

From the Magazine

Art

Payton’s place

Netflix’s The Politician is satire without purpose

By James Delingpole

From the Magazine

Life

Humor

Headlines of the coming year

Trump Tweet Hints At Displeasure With Lawyer ‘Rudy Is A Great Guy But He Is Making Trump Look Evil And Should Stop Going On TV NOW!!!’

By Christopher Buckley

From the Magazine

Humor

Christmas greatness: a Yuletide sermon

Christmas is under attack. It has to be defended

By Dr Sebastian Gorka, DrG, FBE, CPA

From the Magazine

Humor

Godfrey Elfwick’s Nativity drama

I’m dreaming of a woke Chr*stm*s

By Godfrey Elfwick

From the Magazine

Home

American English must be the most carelessly spoken and written dialect on Earth

Part of the problem is sheer mental and physical laziness

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Home

White Christmas: the magic of the festive drugs binge

Among partying druggies, the trust that has disappeared from every level of society is fully present

By Jeremy Clarke

From the Magazine

Humor

The joy of spending Christmas alone

I learned it’s frowned upon to say things like Christmas carols make me want to blow my brains out

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

Faith

Let Utah be Utah

I dig the Mormons and even pull for Brigham Young University’s football team

By Bill Kauffman

From the Magazine

Humor

Digby Dent on lawn darts in winter

Taking a doughy-handed son of privilege and making him clubbable doesn’t happen by magic

By Digby Dent

From the Magazine

Place

My wild Key West

I have never been anywhere where the sea has such beautiful colors that change so rapidly

By Elisa Segrave

From the Magazine

Home

Notes on…bridge

I am a very demanding partner and, sometimes, unpleasant competition

By Daniella Greenbaum Davis

From the Magazine

Diary

Michael Wolff is working on ‘nothing’

A surprising number of my contemporaries have children who are stand-up comics

By Michael Wolff

From the Magazine

Place

Franco’s ghost

The generalísimo kept Saint Teresa of Avila’s mummified hand by his bedside

By Ian Thomson

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Drink

Eggs and hard liquor: Spectator writers serve up their favorite literary meals

Our own age has good reason to sigh over the unrepentant enjoyment that mid-20th century America managed so well

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Drink

Bowl food: childhood memories have inspired a new craze for cookie dough

Hundreds of customers can be seen snaking around the block, eagerly awaiting tubs and cones of buttery, sugary batter

By Madeleine Kearns

From the Magazine

Drink

For duck’s sake: New York’s foie gras ban is classic political posturing

The ban is about much more than animal rights. It is about punishing the rich. And it has to be, because the animal-rights case has no merit

By Benjamin Riley

From the Magazine

Drink

Transparent spirit: craft distilling has come to Washington DC big time

Everything at One Eight Distilling is good. The vodka is somehow bearable. The rye is melt-your-face fantastic

By Billy McMorris

From the Magazine