'We’re thinking of moving to Kentucky,' an old friend confessed recently, such a move from Manhattan likely to lift his child's chances of being admitted to an Ivy League university. It turns out that a rich white kid from poor-as-dirt hillbilly country is a lot more interesting to college admissions officers than a rich white kid from the Upper East Side

Progressivess always have trouble with the working poor. They prefer the kind of abject Dickensian poverty that can be ministered to, the kind that calls out for boldly intrusive policies and new government interventions. But poor people getting by, making do? That would be an affront to the progressive sensibility, which always requires a villain

People only stay at the Yale Club in Manhattan when they’re looking for a cheap but respectable option—something they can charge to their membership and, if necessary, take several months to pay off. Well it's booked solid, which is what poker players call a 'tell'. And what it tells you is something very straightforward: tough times ahead

The Big Apple has transformed itself from a place of jittery, brittle energies — a place for nicotine-fuelled go-getters and pushy type-A neurotics and in-your-face fuggeddaboutits — into a place where everyone just wants to kick back and, like, chill. Sniff the air, catch that ubiquitous pong of marijuana smoke and part of the reason for the change becomes immediately clear

Progressive social scientists, it turned out to the astonishment of none but progressive social scientists, were wrong: crime could go down even if the 'root causes' went unaddressed. New York became a peaceful, liveable city and we all forget about carrying a second, decoy wallet to placate sidewalk bandits. These days in a very bruised Big Apple it's back to the future

My local coffee shop in Manhattan is two shops in […]

The worst part about reading Woody Allen’s winning and witty […]