March 6, 2021
The Best
of
The
News
from
Abroad
No. 86
Weekend
Edition
Saturdays

at 6:00 AM
In This Week’s Issue
Knock Three Times

In Paris, Alexander Lobrano tracks down the city’s most illicit new trend: speakeasy restaurants …

The First 100 Days

Douglas McGrath has some advice for Joe Biden: Go big or go home …

The Royal Soap

In advance of Meghan Markle’s Oprahthon, Stuart Heritage digs through the charges that she fostered a toxic work atmosphere at the Palace …

Pillow Talk

Cathy Isaacson reveals what it’s like to live with Steve Jobs’s biographer—her husband, Walter—as he delivers yet another best-seller …

The Social Network

How did a former U.K. minister who vowed to fix income inequality end up in California, making millions shilling for Mark Zuckerberg? …

Court of St. Blames

The former French ambassador to Great Britain details the countless lies and delusions of Boris Johnson, and how they’ve crippled the country …

But First …
Issue No. 86

The View from Here The era of big government is back, and that’s a good thing

By Douglas McGrath
Read On
Palace Intrigue

Is Meghan More Bully than Bullied? A “very concerned” Palace and “humiliated” staff surely aren’t the pre-Oprah headlines Mr. and Mrs. Markle expected

By Stuart Heritage
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
Interview

The Lying Game The former French ambassador to the U.K. calls Boris Johnson a reckless leader with no concern for the truth. Sound familiar?

By Charles Bremner
Read On
Listen

Paris, When It’s Illicit—and Delicious Inside France’s hot new trend (Sssshhhh … )

Read On
Air Mail Diary

Did You Hear
About … ? Curious news about these strange days

By George Kalogerakis
Read On
The Money Tree

Big Bucks for Little Zuck Nick Clegg vowed to reduce wealth inequality. Now Britain’s former deputy prime minister is shilling for Facebook

By Ben Ellery and Ben Hoyle
Read On
Air Supply

The Pottering Perfectionist

For those who love little more than tinkering around the house on weekends, we spotlight our favorite items that you don’t likely already have in your garage, mudroom, or garden shed. Following your Saturday-morning AIR MAIL delivery, you’ll be squared away for a blissful day of domestic activity
Shop
Photo: United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock (Being There)
Small Talk
Style
The Bag Simone Rocha As a sign of our renewed optimism that life will soon require both dressing up and going places, behold Simone Rocha’s Perspex… The Sweater Anna Quan “Delayed” is not our favorite kind of gratification, but given how instantly Anna Quan’s pieces sell out, it’s time to be ahead… The Dress Prada Prada collectors know that one exceptional black dress can do a lifetime of service. Every so often, it shows up in stores;… The Sunglasses Le Specs Life experience has taught us that we are allowed to own only one pair of designer sunglasses at a time. But! An eyewear… The Bag Simone Rocha As a sign of our renewed optimism that life will soon require both dressing up and going places, behold Simone Rocha’s Perspex… The Sweater Anna Quan “Delayed” is not our favorite kind of gratification, but given how instantly Anna Quan’s pieces sell out, it’s time to be ahead… The Dress Prada Prada collectors know that one exceptional black dress can do a lifetime of service. Every so often, it shows up in stores;… The Sunglasses Le Specs Life experience has taught us that we are allowed to own only one pair of designer sunglasses at a time. But! An eyewear…
The Other Half

Living with Steve Jobs’s Biographer Walter Isaacson has written about da Vinci and Einstein. His wife writes about his creative process. Salad, anyone?

By Cathy Isaacson
Read On
Small Talk
Highlight

Big Picture A 21st-century mind living in the 20th century, Niki de Saint Phalle rejected artistic and social norms. Her sculptures go on display at MoMA PS1 this week

By Patricia Zohn
Read On
Art

Into the Ether Christie’s marks the sale of its first purely digital artwork with a revolutionary break from the old-school-art way: accepting crypto-currency as payment

By Alexandra Bregman
Read On
Food and Wine

Underground Gourmet In lockdown, desperate French chefs keep the lights on (low) with speakeasy restaurants

By Alexander Lobrano
Read On

The World According to Grayson Perry

Maps are mirrors. They are designed, at the most elementary level, to translate vast geographic space into something compact, yet they can’t help but reflect much more: ignorance, fear, prejudice, fantasy, myth. Two famous ancient globes embrace the unknown with the words Hic sunt dracones: “Here be dragons.” Even Google Maps and Waze trade on what we all know to be speculation—the idea that they’re sending us on the best route. READ ON

British artist Grayson Perry, a satirist and mapper of culture wars, photographed by Snowdon.

Read On
Discover
Close-up

Sasha Spielberg Otherwise known as Buzzy Lee, the 30-year-old singer has released her first album, with a second underway

By Elena Clavarino
Read On
Small Talk
“I told you it was too soon to ride the subway.”
“I told you it was too soon to ride the subway.”

Click here to visit

Don’t Miss
New York

Collector’s items: Adrian Dannatt’s personal collection, with pieces by Nan Goldin and Picasso, on show at Miguel Abreu Gallery …

Munich

On the mark: a new performance of von Weber’s Der Freischütz, from Dmitri Tcherniakov and the Bavarian State Opera …

Seattle

America’s eye: 30 panels from Jacob Lawrence’s “American Struggle” series, last seen at New York’s Metropolitan Museum …

Reno

Victorian radicals: art from the pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement …

Online

Classics with a ballet twist: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, The Car Man, Cinderella, and Romeo and Juliet, available on demand in rotation …

Air Mail Jr.
Read On
Best
Watch Tehran Tehran might be the best-concealed identity thriller since The Americans. Or a decent substitute if you are still suffering withdrawal… Listen Under the Influence with Jo Piazza Whether you’re addicted to Instagram or abstain from the platform entirely, there’s a lot to love… Inside Beata Heuman’s London home. Having taken an age to find, Beata Heuman wanted her and her husband’s first family home to be their own little magical world. ‘It’s a living work of art,’ says Swedish decorator Beata Heuman of her handsomely proportioned Hammersmith home. Heuman in the richly decorated summerhouse she affectionately calls Chatsworth. Read Every Room Should Sing Over the past year, creative interior decoration has become more of a necessity than a luxury… Shop Talia Collective Does a 100 percent sustainable shopping experience exist? Unfortunately not. Rebecca Prunali encourages a grounded… Watch Tehran Tehran might be the best-concealed identity thriller since The Americans. Or a decent substitute if you are still suffering withdrawal… Listen Under the Influence with Jo Piazza Whether you’re addicted to Instagram or abstain from the platform entirely, there’s a lot to love… Inside Beata Heuman’s London home. Having taken an age to find, Beata Heuman wanted her and her husband’s first family home to be their own little magical world. ‘It’s a living work of art,’ says Swedish decorator Beata Heuman of her handsomely proportioned Hammersmith home. Heuman in the richly decorated summerhouse she affectionately calls Chatsworth. Read Every Room Should Sing Over the past year, creative interior decoration has become more of a necessity than a luxury… Shop Talia Collective Does a 100 percent sustainable shopping experience exist? Unfortunately not. Rebecca Prunali encourages a grounded…
Open Book

Life with Lee Lee Friedlander’s images—ranging from portraits of jazz stars to shots of the American heartland—offer insight into the mind of the great photographer

9
Miles Davis, New York City, 1969.
Wilmington, Delaware, 1985.
Detroit, 1963.
Nude, 1982.
King Curtis, New York City, 1970.
Baltimore, 1962.
Spain, 1964.
John Szarkowski and Natasha Szarkowski, East Chatham, New York, 1976.
Maria, New York City, 1959.
Read On
Small Talk
“They were apparently more advanced than we thought.”
“They were apparently more advanced than we thought.”
Books
Monique El-Faizy On

Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt’s Roaring ’20s

by Raphael Cormack
Read On
Anderson Tepper On

The Committed

by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Read On
Inside Story

Working Girls Even guests of New York’s women-only Barbizon, the revolutionary residential hotel once home to Sylvia Plath, found the sexist rules of their era hard to shake

By Paulina Bren
Read On
Great Lives

Sylvia Horowitz From Brooklyn to jobs in fashion, to becoming a valued member of the United Nations family

By Charles DeFanti
Read On
The Perfect Ending

Alessandro Sartori

The artistic director of Ermenegildo Zegna answers 28 of life’s most pressing questions
Read On
Air Play
View on Spotify
Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Sketchbook
“But what if this is how it really is?”
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Deputy Editors

Chris Garrett Michael Hainey Nathan King

Design Director

Angela Panichi

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Style Editor

Ashley Baker

Features Editor

Ash Carter

Senior Editor

Julia Vitale

Executive Editor

David Foxley

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Associate Editors

Elena Clavarino Clementine Ford Alex Oliveira Elinor Schneider

Columnists

Cazzie David Emma Freud Walter Isaacson
Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson John Lahr
Douglas McGrath James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Joseph Bullmore William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner Alexandra Marshall

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Communications Director

Anna Bradlee

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Research & Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

Photo Editor

Emine Gozde Sevim

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Interns

Roxy Solis Gasper Tringale-White Jenna Kim

Chief Operating Officer

Bill Keenan

Chief Marketing Officer

Emily Davis

Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Sales Director

Michael Pescuma

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Integrated Marketing Manager

Madeline Spates

In Memoriam

Richard David Story (1952–2021)

Issue No. 86
March 6, 2021
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Issue No. 86
March 6, 2021
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