Harvey Keitel

The Highest Bidder

New York—Harvey Keitel, the actor, rang up to invite me to a Marine shindig where General Petraeus would be guest speaker. The venue was Carnegie Hall, and I arrived late, having had a tough session at the karate dojo. I was also very dehydrated. Next to me was a beautiful young woman by the name ...

Central Park, New York

The Birds, the Bees, and the Big Apple

New York—Even after all these years, I’m still at times floored by the scale of the place. And it’s always the old reliables that stand out: the silvery arcs of the Chrysler Building; the wide avenues; the filigree of Central Park; the limestone monument to power, Rockefeller Center. The ...

Larry Ellison

When Hysteria and Hulkamania Run Wild

My old friend and onetime doubles partner Ray Moore has stepped down as chief executive of the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament for telling the truth. As Rod Liddle wrote in The Spectator a couple of weeks ago, “There is nothing more damaging to a career than telling an unfortunate truth.” Ray ...

Marshal Michel Ney, Duc d'Elchingen, Prince de la Moskova

Over Two Centuries Ago…

On November 17, 1813, the bravest of the brave, Marshal Ney, had been the last to march out of Smolensk amid harrowing scenes. The hospital wards, the corridors, and the stairs were full of the dead and dying. Napoleon had gone into Russia the year before with 500,000 men and was now leaving with ...

See You on the Slopes

Gstaad—Going up on a chairlift with the town’s doctor, I asked him, “How’s business, doc?” “Never better,” said the kind medical man. It seems the richer we get the more medical help is needed. “I get calls 24/7 for all sorts of ailment relief, especially coughs and colds,” said ...

Lycabettus Hill, Athens

The Drive Home

Athens—I am walking around downtown Athens watching thousands of migrants fielding pitches from smugglers for alternative routes to Germany and Austria. I ask a friendly policeman fifty years younger than me why he doesn’t arrest the smugglers and throw the key away. “Others will take their ...

David and Charles Koch

Targets of the Elite

The rich are under attack nowadays, nowhere more than in America, where the Donald continues to trump his critics, amaze and surprise his fans, and drive his haters to paroxysms of sexual fantasies, with Trump as the main actor. National Review, where I got my start 40 or so years ago, devoted a ...

Althea Gibson

Out of Bounds

Althea Gibson was a black American lady tennis player who won Wimbledon and many other major championships during the late "€™50s. She was also a very good singer and a friendly soul, carrying none of the anger and fury today's blacks exhibit the minute the spotlight shines on them. She passed ...

James Woods

Knock on Woods

One reason I do not tweet, text, or use Facebook or Instagram, and only wield a mobile when a landline is unavailable, is because all of the above gadgets are free of anything resembling a credible spoken word emanating from a disease-free brain. The mind-numbing gobbledygook that billions send ...

David Cameron

Here in the Fifth Circle

Gstaad—The locals here in the beautiful Saanen valley are split over the migrant crisis. Switzerland does not belong to the E.U., but the fascists in Brussels have pressed good old Helvetia to open its doors to those streaming out of Africa and the Middle East. Switzerland, a tiny country of 8 ...