The Spectator World

We've just gone to press with the August monthly edition of @TheSpectator. - @AdamFriedland on the pain of being an Arsenal fan - @bdomenech on the film industry's move to Texas - @MarcWarner10 on AI's potential to surpass humans - @BridgetPhetasy on dead internet theory

"If the rumors of Xi’s defenestration are true, why the delay and subterfuge? The answer may lie in the fact that there is no obvious successor." ✍️ Francis Pike trib.al/CrmOb2o

"Xi’s two-week disappearance in May seemed to support the theory that he has already been frozen out." ✍️ Francis Pike trib.al/Rf384TP

"Chernow does not merely track Twain’s movements, he examines his moods, compulsions, long silences and sudden eruptions. He maps the fault lines between performance and despair." ✍️ John Mac Ghlionn trib.al/eKYcVcC

"Most of the congregations are elderly and small in number. It’s easy to imagine that many of them will be gone in a generation." ✍️ Chris Mondics trib.al/QzTqquh

"If you tell friends you are going to Kyrgyzstan, they look blank, or think you are talking about Kurdistan, although the two are 2,000 miles apart. If you get the choice, choose Kyrgyzstan." ✍️ Charles Moore trib.al/0ezRX02

"When it comes to changing social mores, meanwhile, there are some attitudes and remarks by Holmes and other characters that seem fairly old-hat now, but we don’t need to impose any positive discrimination to make up for it." ✍️ Gareth Rubin trib.al/RyPKF88

"Currently, Zohran is polling 12 points ahead of Andrew Cuomo (now running as an Independent), 22 points ahead of Adams and 17 points ahead of Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa." trib.al/PTARmMy

"There are a couple of serviceable cafés across the street, but you are in Paris and do you really want lunch in a serviceable café?" ✍️ Loyd Grossman trib.al/7BFBlV1

"Jared’s connections now serve a dual purpose: advancing his business ventures while providing Trump with insights into regional complexities that few others can match." From @karakclairmont trib.al/IeVrHio

"It’s impossible to know whether circulatory death patients feel pain or distress in their final moments, and after years of incentivizing this behavior, the federal government is only recently beginning to play an oversight role." ✍️ Gage Klipper trib.al/jdNNKkp

"Sometimes you like what you find in quiet. Once you push past the initial discomfort, your mind starts doing things you forgot it could. Strange images drift in – not to-do lists, but actual imagination." ✍️ Katherine Dee trib.al/lQ5FxVl

"A decade hence, Nathaniel Hawthorne, riding on a 'dirty canal boat,' was unimpressed with this 'interminable mud-puddle,' dark and turbid, but pleasure cruises for New England littérateurs were not the point." ✍️ Bill Kauffman trib.al/y7bbySd

"That love was not down to talent. Like Richards, Ozzy was loved for his frailties, and for embodying something wild that many of us slightly envy, but only from a very great distance, since we also see its effects." ✍️ Michael Hann trib.al/WmDFPf6

"Cockburn can’t help wondering if Adams is trying to channel some of Elon Musk’s energy by naming 'Liberty Link' so suspiciously close to Starlink." trib.al/gFlJ2dY

"How far can you, the continuation author, go in putting your own stamp on things? Well, there are limits – guardrails, as we have to call them in today’s parlance. You don’t want the character’s fanbase to dislike it." ✍️ Gareth Rubin trib.al/IMvCeKa

"Institutions inevitably fall apart when they’re driven by an ineffective sentimentality that’s nevertheless utterly sure of itself; that’s a major reason why public trust in US institutions hovers critically low." ✍️ Gage Klipper trib.al/OnAXWqM

"Sargent: The Paris Years (1874-1884) arrives in September. But where to eat after seeing it?" ✍️ Loyd Grossman trib.al/Wf0pLrx

"Osbourne never seemed to lose that fatalism, which in a world of living-their-best-life stars seemed unusually truthful and endearing." ✍️ Michael Hann trib.al/Xps3Ygc

"We’ve eliminated not just silence but serendipity: no overheard conversations that change our day, no street musicians that stop us in our tracks, no unexpected connections with strangers." ✍️ Katherine Dee trib.al/KUhLhNk

"It appears as though Adams is settling well into his Independent persona, trying to appeal to everyone. He’s showing Democrats he’s all about welfare, and he’s showing Republicans he’s still a fiscally responsible, America First kind of guy." trib.al/eDUMCdY