This Is Joe Biden When No One Is Watching |
On a brilliant spring afternoon in 2016, I stood in a classroom at a Secret Service training facility in Maryland, where I was to interview Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. This was for a special issue of Popular Mechanics all about fathers and sons and the wisdom they pass along to each other, and the Bidens would be appearing on the cover. They walked in, all smiles and handshakes, and we sat for more than two hours as they told stories: Hunter and his brother, Beau, three and four years old, taking turns sitting on Joe's lap as he drove his '67 Corvette through the backroads of Delaware. Painting the house when the boys were teenagers, Hunter dangling from the roof in a harness. Popular Mechanics stories. They talked about the deaths of Joe's first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi, in 1972; and of Beau, in 2015. Joe and Hunter talked about helping each other up, again and again and again, when the pain feels like it will never end. |
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The Redemption of Al Sharpton |
Can't tell you what Martin Luther King Jr. was doing in the hours, minutes, before he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, but I can tell you that sixty years later, Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is sitting in an upholstered wooden chair in his trailer, parked on a fence line behind the Lincoln Memorial, fielding calls on his cell phone about today's rally, at which he will deliver his own speech. Can't tell you the logistical concerns MLK solved himself in the minutes before he gave his most famous public address, but I can tell you that Sharpton's cell is ring ring ringing with handlers and schedulers panicked about the lineup, about having the event shut down by the National Park Service for the bureaucratic alibi that it has run past its permitted time. On the umpteenth such call, Sharpton, who's about as calm as an August breeze, tells the anxious messenger to get ahold of Stephen K. Benjamin, a senior advisor to President Biden, and have him handle it. |
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A Golfer's Take on Tyler, the Creator's Louis Vuitton Collection |
In the golfing world, there exists a bag that, no matter the level of your skills or appreciation for luxury fashion, would be a holy grail whether it's on the back of your cart or in the corner of your office. Louis Vuitton makes it, and it actually costs...well, if you're in the market like that, cost is clearly not an issue. That's not the French fashion house's only foray in to golf. Along with the bag, a towel, headcovers, and a utility kit were also released. And in March 2023, LV released a golf trunk that included a roll-out putting mat. Elsewhere in Europe, Gucci and Prada have also dipped their toe into the water with golf bags of their own. Now, the Pharrell era at LV is seeing its first dose of the game, courtesy of a new capsule designed by Tyler, the Creator—out on March 21—and it might be high-fashion's best golf execution to date. |
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Dune: Part Two Is The Best Sci-Fi Film of the Decade |
Glancing back at my review of the first Dune on this site back in 2021, I noticed that I called it "the best sci-fi movie of the decade." Hyperbole? Not really. Remember, the decade wasn't all that old yet. And to be honest, heading in to the new sequel, I stood by it. But walking out was a different story. Because Dune: Part Two is even better than the first film. The stakes somehow feel exponentially higher, the power struggles are even more mythic and Shakespearean, the onscreen world-building is richer and more exotically filigreed, and the visuals are even more epic and dazzling—something I didn't think was possible. Dune: Part Two isn't just an embarrassment of narrative and retinal riches; it's the sort of big-canvas franchise storytelling we haven't see since The Lord of the Rings came to a close back at the shire. |
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Why the Expensive Suitcase Reigns Supreme |
The more time that you spend in airports, on a plane, and living out of a suitcase, something happens to your taste level for the world of travel. (Accessories, airplane seats, hotels...) It becomes elevated—sometimes too elevated. Except when it comes to suitcases. There, a splurge is worth it. I have put many carry-ons to the test only to be disappointed. All those direct-to-consumer options you find on Google have never blown me away. In fact, they often end up broken and in the trash sooner than they should. Incoming, the one brand I see on every flight, but could never build up my spending courage to buy: Rimowa. Not because it's a status symbol, or because I wanted to fit into the first class lounge of businessmen and DJs at the airport, but because luxury often equates to quality. I wanted to see if, in this case, it was true. I investigated and kind of hate to report that it is. This suitcase is, in fact, great. | |
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I rise to a point of privilege. On Thursday night, we bade farewell to a good and faithful public servant, a man dedicated to the rule of law, and unafraid to take on its strongest enemies, including brutal cops, crooked prosecutors, the Russian mob, suburban militias, gun manufacturers, thugs from the Pinochet regime, and the architects of the country's post 9/11 torture program, never taking a step back. Farewell, Manhattan District Attorney Jack McCoy. Sam Waterston has played the iconic New York prosecutor on NBC's Law and Order since 1994, breaking only when the show went off the air in 2010, eventually being bumped up into the DA's job over its last several seasons. When it returned in 2022, he was still there, surrounded by even younger associates and working with even younger cops. I have been a Waterston fan ever since The Killing Fields. |
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