Serious investment thinking that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Just before Christmas I attended the funeral of my old housemaster, Forbes Wastie. A man I adored, he also taught biology and in later life was Chair of the local magistrate’s bench. Boyishly, I could seldom resist asking him how that role, “Chair of the bench”, was going. An anecdote told in...
As we watch a white Christian patriarchy exert its influence in Washington, I think back to H.L. Mencken whom I admired back in eighth grade for his sharp tongue. I come from...
Sometimes it feels that waiting for the capital market recovery is like waiting for Arsenal to win the League. Each of the last two seasons we have started with high hopes in our...
Every year, I write one navel-gazing post about what I do for a living. Past instalments include “Noah Smith’s writing advice”, “How to write a successful Substack”, “How to be...
I’ve just finished a ten day solo tour down South as the World’s Oldest Stand-Up and it was a major adventure for an old guy with memory issues who keeps forgetting the word...
‘Une invitation au voyage’ Last Monday I took the TGV from Paris to Cannes to attend the annual MIPIM property conference. This grand and familiar train journey was preceded by a...
I’ve gotten a rave report from Bayfield, Wisconsin, that relatives of a friend slaughtered a hog and put on a pork feast for neighbours and that fresh pork compared to...
“Men don’t care what’s on TV. They only care what else is on TV.” — Jerry Seinfeld N.S. Lyons is a popular essayist in the “national conservative” tradition. His...
I seldom invite friends to come to church with me and, after Sunday’s morning service that was so deeply moving, I don’t know why. If you knew a great bakery, you’d tell people....
I got to spend last week in California, seeing people, doing things, from Irvine up to Sacramento, and people kept trying to get me to go with them to vineyards, though I no...