A good lunch is a blessing. A good lunch is everything. At least once a month it’s worth removing yourself from the rhythms of the world and taking time to sit down properly and enjoy the midday meal. Dinner is not the same, restaurants at night are a little more full and a little more fraught. To get to know a restaurant go in the day.
Read MoreThis has always been my favorite shirt in any film. Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone has retired. He’s not in the darkened, wood-paneled office but in the sunlight of the garden. He’s forsaken the professional life for the pastoral life.
Read MoreA good hotel is both transporting and reassuring. It conveys a sense of imagination that allows you to live, however briefly, an improved version of your life. You have a rare alpine yoghurt and some wild strawberries while sitting on your terrace and find yourself saying “I could get used to this.”
Read MoreI recently wrote a piece for Orvis about fly fishing superstitions and the perils of lucky hats. When the fishing’s going well you take the credit, when the hat’s gone then suddenly it had mystical powers and is the source of your struggles. This kind of irrational logic is typical of the angler who can’t decide if the sport is fundamentally simple or profoundly unknowable.
Read MoreA good obituary puts a life in context and is both wide-ranging and specific. We should understand why a person’s life mattered in a broad sense and how that life impacted friends and strangers alike.
Read MoreLate night eBay is full of risks an rewards. It’s not unlike late-night writing, except you can always edit in the clear light of day, while a forgotten eBay transgression arrives in a mysterious box at your door. You open it and your worst fears come true.
Read MoreOf all my idiosyncrasies, the oddest may be my devotion to podcasts about things I know nothing about. I’m not talking about some important but obscure historical event that sheds light on the modern world. No, these are contemporary topics that have no particular redeeming moral value whatsoever. Like wrestling.
Read MoreTony Sylvester is a force of nature. You might know him as a fierce dandy, devoted gourmande or have seen him onstage with the band Turbo Negro or in the Timothy Everest store. If you are passionate about some far outpost of the sartorial realm then chances are he is too and also happens knows more about it, which is not a problem since he’s easygoing with his expertise.
Read MoreI discovered Upstream Wines in Livingston Manor, on my way to fish in the Catskills. (Anglers should note that Dette, the legendary fly shop, has relocated there.) It’s a delightful space on Main Street, that opened in the summer 2017 by Meg McNeill.
Read MoreWhy do I love buying books but hate buying an electronic books? I’m sure it involves some outdated romance with the object of a book itself and the prospect of assembling a library. An audio book is just code—you don’t find a forgotten concert ticket between the pages when you open it. Regardless, I’ve been very enthralled with the Libby app, which allows you to check out audio books from your local library for free. It’s a delight.
Read MoreEverybody remain calm, it’s just a friendly addition to the internet. The world might not need another website, but we do need a place to talk about where to buy a first suit, where to drink in Japan and where to bonefish in the Bahamas. Curious people on the hunt are always looking for insight and intelligence.
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