P.J. O’Rourke Lives Again (at The Spectator)

 

“I thought I had forgotten about Diane Abbott, but in fact there has been a Diane-sized hole in my life and I only properly realised this when she came back, gloriously, to fill it again. Hitherto I had been going about my business, writing columns, cooking for my family and so on, and perhaps to other people I seemed to be getting along normally enough—but in truth I was hollow inside, devoid of a sense of purpose. How uplifting it was to see her back in the headlines.”

From Rod Liddle, ‘The Delicious Doublethink of Diane Abbott,’ The Spectator , 29 April 2023, at 15, <https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ive-missed-you-diane-abbott/>; 

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“On the morning of the 26th, the day after Violeta Chamorro’s victory over Danny Ortega, I walked into the Inter-Continental Hotel in Managua and Bianca Jagger was sitting alone in the lobby. Bianca had been ubiquitous during the election campaign: There was Bianca looking smart in an unreconstructed linen jacket and yellow socks to match, Bianca looking serious with press pass and camera, Bianca looking thoughtful listening to Jimmy Carter, Bianca looking concerned conferring with Senator Christopher Dodd, Bianca looking committed in simple tennis shoes and neatly mussed hair, Bianca looking important wearing sunglasses after dark. But this morning Bianca looked ... her age. Here we had ... [a] discarded rock-star wife, trapped in the lonely hell of the formerly cute—one bummed-out show-biz lefty. I was feeling great myself, ready to turn somersaults over the Ortega defeat, full of good cheer and pleased with all the world. But then the forlorn, sagging little shape of Bianca caughy my eye and, all of a sudden, I felt even better.”

P.J. O’Rourke, ‘Return of the Death of Communism, Nicaragua, 1990,’ in Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind’s Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice and Alcohol-Free Beer 55 (1992). 

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Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘P.J. O’Rourke Lives Again (at The Spectator),’ New Reform Club (May 8, 2023, 1:27 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2023/05/pj-orourke-lives-again-at-spectator.html>;