123rd Officer Cadet Training Regiment, Royal Artillery, 1942
A group portrait of the R.A. from 1942, an inauspicious time to go through training
Don’t do this, Washington Post!
The Post asks “Hit job or gossip?” about their owner, but doesn’t have the answer
James Baldwin at David Zwirner
I worked with Hilton Als on a James Baldwin show; now Als has curated an exhibit about him
The fall of men at the NYRB
Surely #MeToo should also be about educating men in their 60s like Ian Buruma rather than driving them out
The Battle of Chile and the wonder of movie theaters
The Battle of Chile is a great film that was made more powerful by the sound of anguish in the audience
Eugen Baraga university records, Slovenia, 1919-20
I chanced upon the records of one of the first students ever to attend the University of Ljubljana
On the streets of Hong Kong in 1938
Hong Kong in 1938 was smaller in scale, more human, much poorer and more unjust
Banning the Indian rupee notes really was dumb
The cash ban was floated in a Tamil action film, of all places, yet somehow became real policy
The continuing glory of the New York Review of Books
The New York Review was always great, but it may be even better under new editor Ian Buruma
Visiting Leila Menchari’s garden in Tunisia
An Hermès exhibit to honor Leila Menchari and my journey to her beloved garden in Tunisia
Ta-Nehisi Coates is wrong about Trump voters
True, for many race defined this campaign but stating that bluntly won’t win them back
Young man with pitchfork, Studio Maignet, Paris, date unknown
I collect old portrait cards all over the world but it was the semiotics of this one that intrigued me
Car bombs and gangsters in Malta
I found that the Maltese talk openly about the criminals in their midst
Police shootings database
Whatever the cause the sheer number of dead should impress us: 813 so far this year with weeks to go
Robert Silvers was our greatest editor
Robert Silvers died this week but his New York Review of Books brought me years of pleasure
Tracking the incompetent Trump cabinet
Bush’s team bungled Hurricane Katrina but they were professionals compared to Trump’s gang
Warrior-gymnasts in Tonkin, Vietnam, 1909
French overlords in colonial-era Vietnam make the locals do ridiculous things
The generosity of the Quebec City eulogy
After the massacre at a Quebec City mosque, a lesson in how to defeat hate
Lijiang, China as it used to be
One of the world’s most exquisite towns, now lost, captured on video the very year I first saw it
Homs, Syria after five years of war
Drone video footage shows there’s no life left in Syria’s third largest city
My pick for travel in 2016 is Iran
As I write in Travel + Leisure, for the traveler the nuclear accord makes Iran newly accessible
On the attacks in Paris
Le Ca Rillon and Le Petit Cambodge, both hit by Islamic State, were two of my favorites in Paris