Really sucks about Taki, David. I knew when reading the last The Week that Perished your inimical wit was missing and I quit after the first paragraph. Not sure who the new writer is, but his imitation of you leaves one wanting. I guess that's the sincerest form of flattery.
I'm pretty sure it's the British guy who does a Monday column. It speaks to just how good Dave is that he took over the gig from Jim Goad (who is amazing) and was even better at it than Jim was.
Thank you, Mike! Jim's a longtime friend, but if I was perhaps better at The Week than he was, it's because Jim hated doing that column and I loved it. I really loved it. For me it was like doing Weekend Update at SNL, but with even more Norm Macdonald bite. I had a ball.
Yeah, I could tell it wasn't David as well. I may have to unsubscribe from Taki since all I ever read was Dave and Steve, and Steve also has a substack
* Agreed! That current writer of The Week That Perished imagines writing about scatological low-life's & inbred losers is cutting-edge reporting. It resulted in me being inspired by the ancient story of the Bishop & the Rats. If only to sic Ratibor in a similar fashion on that keyboard zombie. Although I like that image in my imagination, my heart knows, in reality, it isn't a problem solver. Damn Logic! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45179/gods-judgment-on-a-wicked-bishop
Sorry to hear that you are not with Takimag anymore. Frankly the site hasn’t been great for a while now. Yours and Dalrymple were the only two columns I read for the past year or so.
Sorry to hear about your parting ways with Taki, but I do respect that you're keeping it professional and not dishing. That's classy, and the sort of thing that keeps doors propped open down the road - nobody likes a bitchy prima donna who does a tell-all after a parting of the ways.
Glad to hear that you’re still above ground. I did scan the obits page on the LA Times (not sure if they would give you the publicity, or if they would jump on the chance to smear Ol’ Dave when he couldn’t swing back…) I promise to not UNTHUBTHRIBE when I receive a notification and email.
Imagine if you had checked in with the intention of checking out, by jumping off. Would you have jumped on top of those protestors and killed them? I don't think so. Only a racist person would do that.
Imagine being in such a rage, that you would hurl down the contents of the minibar. For example, one of those tiny bottles of Hennessy: 25 bucks. Maybe a bag of doritos (small): 8 bucks. Maybe the whole damned minibar.
David Cole, a worthy successor to H.L. Mencken, is back! And hopefully for good. Far be it for me to fathom the nature of Takimag's soul-crushing demands -- very likely, fundamentalist readers had complained too often -- but at least we're still in business. I might add how infuriating it is that all of Cole's previous articles beyond Page 1 of the Taki site suddenly are now inaccessible. Yes, I'd already photocopied them. But a lot of fans probably didn't. Consider them deprived, not depraved.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re no longer with Taki. You were the only reason I read the magazine because of your wit and knowledge.
I’m also sorry to hear about the hotel incident. That was the last thing I expected to be happening to someone in a hotel in a nice neighborhood.
Since you have more free time on your hands, I suggest you be more active online. Just block and mute the trolls and grow your fanbase by people who don’t follow merely because of superficial reasons. There are many decent people on X who may love to hear your words about politics.
For example there’s an Asian guy on X who hosts spaces almost every day and has a coffee link on his bio.
People from everywhere come to his spaces to listen and talk. It’s so fun if there’s a good witty host such as yourself and decent guests to have a back and forth.
Couple of years ago, my wife and I were visiting one our kids at college. It was winter, and it was windy and damp outside. Low-buck hotel in the Marriot chain. First night, at 1 AM, the fire alarm goes off, and (far worse) the strobes were going off in all the rooms too. We stagger out into the hallway and I hear other guests muttering "Dammit, not again!"
Front desk tells us it's a false alarm - there's a faulty sensor in an exhaust duct, and the damp winds have been hitting that duct, causing condensation, and setting off the alarms. No worries, they assure us, they'll just disable the alarm panel.
That was a lousy night's sleep, and we staggered through the next day. At least we got to spend time with our kid.
Next night, though (as the guest had ominously warned), it went off again. This night-crew couldn't figure out how to silence the fault for a long time, and the MOD said he'd had a repair ticket open on that duct for weeks now. Half an hour later, they've got the horns off, but then the strobes kept going off - they're so bright they pierce your eyelids and go through the damned pillows. At 2AM I said to my wife "We're outta here. We'll tell our kid sorry, but we're driving home." I was going to be awake for the next 3 hours regardless - might as well use them to get home.
This is nothing. During the mass shooting incident in Las Vegas way back in 2017, the Mandalay Hotel was taking room service orders. Some people even complained.
Dave-I'm sorry to hear about the Taki split, but maybe it's for the best?
Your Bev Hills hotel story is great, tragically funny- but PLEASE take the BP seriously. Are you on BP meds? And I'm not sure if you can get a hold of some emergency blood thinners, but if so, do! I was up and down w/ my BP and then had a stroke (Feb.28th.) It's "serious as a heart attack" and your life really changes. I'm still recovering. Just got back to driving. I'm thankful every day that my husband called 911/EMT 's right away- so my damage is not too bad. This is another good reason not to move into the boonies!
Thank you for your comment, Kate. And thank you even more for your concern. I had been on meds, but I found that I achieved the same BP by just limiting my stress (I have two calibrated home BP testers, and I check daily). That said, my little plan didn't account for weeks like the last one.
I wish you a continued, speedy, and complete recovery, my friend. Among my long-term options for where to live (I just plan to do Airbnbs and hotels throughout the summer) is an invite to go live with my ex girlfriend who's a registered nurse. It's tempting, because I'd be in the company of someone who knows what to do should I have a crisis.
Just one bit of extra advice on the BP issue- it's all well and good- when we can keep our lives under control. I too monitored my BP at home daily, but then had some ugliness at my work place that I couldn't control (and couldn't block out.) This is why I now feel that getting on a low dose of BP meds might have saved me a lot of hell. I was just extremely stubborn.
I think your idea of doing local air-b- b's is very wise. It will settle out in due time.
I read the most recent "Week That Perished" and it's BRUTAL. I adore Taki, and I cannot bring myself to believe that this was his decision. I still like the other writers, but it's a severely dessicated husk of what it once was without you. To think, John Derbyshire and Gavin McInnes and Jim Goad and David Cole once graced its pages!
National Review have an incredible ability to find incredible writers and not be able to keep them. John Derbyshire, Mark Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson, Conrad Black, Kyle Smith, Steve Sailer. All were incredible, and all have left the magazine
it National Review s case it really was a j Neo Conservative takeover /coup ( Jonah Goldberg , David Frum , William Kristal , David Podhoretz) - these J Neo Conservatives and non J Neo Conservatives purged any and all Their writers who either :
Opposed any of their Neo Con wars in Iraq. ( Unpatiotic Conservatives NR - David Frum - the same &$@“ short Canadian J Neo Conman that wrote George W Bush ‘s worst ever presidential speech “ The Axis of Evil” speech ) , noticed “ The War against Christmas “ or who dared oppose open border immigration The Great Replacement of White Europeans in Europe and the UK and the replacement of White European Americans here in the USA.
Or firing John “ The Derb” Derbyshire from NR for his GOAT article at yes Takimag “ The Talk - the Non Black Version “
Thus was a Stalin type purge with show trials thus time done by ethnic J Neo Cons .
"the right is brimming with personality-cult blowhards who claim inerrancy"
Thank you for saying this. It's something I've noticed too, and it's a big hindrance if someone or some movement is trying to attract quality people. In my experience, it's not so much the Christians on the Right who are like that, although there are more than enough of those. It's also the Neo-Pagan He-Men who ate nails for breakfast outside their tent on the mountaintop, after doing dead-lifts next to their Italian sports car. Or so they said.
For me, a self-deprecating but steady Fred-MacMurray type is a lot more appealing and worthy of respect as a leader than those personality-cult types. Guys in the foxholes seem to think that way also.
Sorry you've had to move on from Takimag. I was one of those commenters there under a pseudonym, about 9 years ago. You and Goad were the main appeals for me there. When they shut down the comments section I got disgusted and moved on. I know that some of the commenters at Taki's in the old days could be unreasonable, but it was often a great place to have free-wheeling discussion. I was glad to find you on Substack.
> "It's also the Neo-Pagan He-Men who ate nails for breakfast outside their tent on the mountaintop, after doing dead-lifts next to their Italian sports car. Or so they said."
They also shave off their eyelashes. Combine that unhealthy habit with green frog memes; you have a recipe for the ages!
Yeah, the personality cult types are really insufferable, and many of them are positively vile. The worst has to be that cancerous goblin Nick Fuentes. But what really disgusts me is the number of people who will mindlessly worship these psychotic retards. I don't think I realized how cultish so many people were until the internet spawned these loathsome creatures.
I lived in the mountains of Colorado for a couple of years at one point, incredibly quiet. Then, I took a job managing this electronics place. For training, they sent me to Vegas for a week. So, two years of living in the most serene Rocky Mountain place you can imagine, and the next night, a hotel above the strip, with flashing neon lights, cop car sirens, and the usual din of Vegas... it was brutal!
Having spent many, many years going to Vegas, I think I actually prefer it to the deathly silence of that cabin. I put the air conditioning fan on JUST to give me SOME background noise!
All good things come to an end, as do my weekly visits to Takimag. Oh, well, but you're here now on Substack -- so why not make this your new home? Plenty of us would happily pay to get regular Cole content right here. Doesn't need to be weekly, if you'd rather not, but once a month? Dave, please, keep writing -- somewhere, somehow -- from your new tiny house in Bumfuck Wherever USA. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and booze.
I'll miss you on Taki. So where else will you be sharing your vit and vizdim? You need a bigger platform. And how'd you get back on X? Maybe start an online thing and solicit commentary. "Cole's Trolls." I'm told, being a virtual nothing doer, that doing nothing is bad for hypertension. Hope you find a place you like. Incidentally, there's an acquaintance of an acquaintance of mine whose real nave is Beverly Hills. So I asked her "Why your parents do that?" Then "Okay, so why you not change it?" "Why, it's my name," she went. So people call you Bev? "Yah." Your column kept me sane. Now...
Yep, been back for about two or three weeks. If you scroll down my recent tweets, you'll see the interesting story of how it went down. I'd have written about it here, but the house-selling is REALLY taxing my time!
Really sucks about Taki, David. I knew when reading the last The Week that Perished your inimical wit was missing and I quit after the first paragraph. Not sure who the new writer is, but his imitation of you leaves one wanting. I guess that's the sincerest form of flattery.
Thank you, my friend.
I'm pretty sure it's the British guy who does a Monday column. It speaks to just how good Dave is that he took over the gig from Jim Goad (who is amazing) and was even better at it than Jim was.
Thank you, Mike! Jim's a longtime friend, but if I was perhaps better at The Week than he was, it's because Jim hated doing that column and I loved it. I really loved it. For me it was like doing Weekend Update at SNL, but with even more Norm Macdonald bite. I had a ball.
Yeah, I could tell it wasn't David as well. I may have to unsubscribe from Taki since all I ever read was Dave and Steve, and Steve also has a substack
Yeah, same here, it sucked, didn't finish it either. Bargain basement TWTP is no longer on my reading list.
* Agreed! That current writer of The Week That Perished imagines writing about scatological low-life's & inbred losers is cutting-edge reporting. It resulted in me being inspired by the ancient story of the Bishop & the Rats. If only to sic Ratibor in a similar fashion on that keyboard zombie. Although I like that image in my imagination, my heart knows, in reality, it isn't a problem solver. Damn Logic! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45179/gods-judgment-on-a-wicked-bishop
Tuck's not a bad writer, but I wouldn't risk a traffic accident listening to his Week while driving to work early in the morning.
Sorry to hear that you are not with Takimag anymore. Frankly the site hasn’t been great for a while now. Yours and Dalrymple were the only two columns I read for the past year or so.
Ditto that, but I'm afraid that Dalrymple seems to be imitating himself. Getting old sux!
Sorry to hear about your parting ways with Taki, but I do respect that you're keeping it professional and not dishing. That's classy, and the sort of thing that keeps doors propped open down the road - nobody likes a bitchy prima donna who does a tell-all after a parting of the ways.
I agree it is classy, though I would love to hear the story!
I hope you are taking blood pressure medication to lower your risk.
Try negotiating with the Airbnb - they could rent it out to others and recoup some of the money.
Long Live Ol Dave!!
Yes, very classy indeed!
Glad to hear that you’re still above ground. I did scan the obits page on the LA Times (not sure if they would give you the publicity, or if they would jump on the chance to smear Ol’ Dave when he couldn’t swing back…) I promise to not UNTHUBTHRIBE when I receive a notification and email.
Imagine if you had checked in with the intention of checking out, by jumping off. Would you have jumped on top of those protestors and killed them? I don't think so. Only a racist person would do that.
I'd have bounced off the fucking drums!
I'm sure I would have dumped piss on them!
THAT would've been a good idea!
Imagine being in such a rage, that you would hurl down the contents of the minibar. For example, one of those tiny bottles of Hennessy: 25 bucks. Maybe a bag of doritos (small): 8 bucks. Maybe the whole damned minibar.
That's right. Racists are known for jumping on people from four stories.
David Cole, a worthy successor to H.L. Mencken, is back! And hopefully for good. Far be it for me to fathom the nature of Takimag's soul-crushing demands -- very likely, fundamentalist readers had complained too often -- but at least we're still in business. I might add how infuriating it is that all of Cole's previous articles beyond Page 1 of the Taki site suddenly are now inaccessible. Yes, I'd already photocopied them. But a lot of fans probably didn't. Consider them deprived, not depraved.
Thank you, Carl! Fortunately, I always retained ownership of my work. Maybe one day I'll publish an anthology.
Connect with Passage Press (via Steve) and do your version of "Noticing." Thank me later! Good things ahead for you...
Dear David
I’m sorry to hear that you’re no longer with Taki. You were the only reason I read the magazine because of your wit and knowledge.
I’m also sorry to hear about the hotel incident. That was the last thing I expected to be happening to someone in a hotel in a nice neighborhood.
Since you have more free time on your hands, I suggest you be more active online. Just block and mute the trolls and grow your fanbase by people who don’t follow merely because of superficial reasons. There are many decent people on X who may love to hear your words about politics.
For example there’s an Asian guy on X who hosts spaces almost every day and has a coffee link on his bio.
People from everywhere come to his spaces to listen and talk. It’s so fun if there’s a good witty host such as yourself and decent guests to have a back and forth.
Please consider giving it a try. It could be fun.
Thank you my friend. Once I find my new place to live, I likely will be much more active online.
Just thank goodness you didn't turn into Howard Stern.
Couple of years ago, my wife and I were visiting one our kids at college. It was winter, and it was windy and damp outside. Low-buck hotel in the Marriot chain. First night, at 1 AM, the fire alarm goes off, and (far worse) the strobes were going off in all the rooms too. We stagger out into the hallway and I hear other guests muttering "Dammit, not again!"
Front desk tells us it's a false alarm - there's a faulty sensor in an exhaust duct, and the damp winds have been hitting that duct, causing condensation, and setting off the alarms. No worries, they assure us, they'll just disable the alarm panel.
That was a lousy night's sleep, and we staggered through the next day. At least we got to spend time with our kid.
Next night, though (as the guest had ominously warned), it went off again. This night-crew couldn't figure out how to silence the fault for a long time, and the MOD said he'd had a repair ticket open on that duct for weeks now. Half an hour later, they've got the horns off, but then the strobes kept going off - they're so bright they pierce your eyelids and go through the damned pillows. At 2AM I said to my wife "We're outta here. We'll tell our kid sorry, but we're driving home." I was going to be awake for the next 3 hours regardless - might as well use them to get home.
At least the hotel refunded both nights.
This is nothing. During the mass shooting incident in Las Vegas way back in 2017, the Mandalay Hotel was taking room service orders. Some people even complained.
Damn what a nightmare!
Dave-I'm sorry to hear about the Taki split, but maybe it's for the best?
Your Bev Hills hotel story is great, tragically funny- but PLEASE take the BP seriously. Are you on BP meds? And I'm not sure if you can get a hold of some emergency blood thinners, but if so, do! I was up and down w/ my BP and then had a stroke (Feb.28th.) It's "serious as a heart attack" and your life really changes. I'm still recovering. Just got back to driving. I'm thankful every day that my husband called 911/EMT 's right away- so my damage is not too bad. This is another good reason not to move into the boonies!
Thank you for your comment, Kate. And thank you even more for your concern. I had been on meds, but I found that I achieved the same BP by just limiting my stress (I have two calibrated home BP testers, and I check daily). That said, my little plan didn't account for weeks like the last one.
I wish you a continued, speedy, and complete recovery, my friend. Among my long-term options for where to live (I just plan to do Airbnbs and hotels throughout the summer) is an invite to go live with my ex girlfriend who's a registered nurse. It's tempting, because I'd be in the company of someone who knows what to do should I have a crisis.
Dave-thanks for the well wishes. I appreciate it.
Just one bit of extra advice on the BP issue- it's all well and good- when we can keep our lives under control. I too monitored my BP at home daily, but then had some ugliness at my work place that I couldn't control (and couldn't block out.) This is why I now feel that getting on a low dose of BP meds might have saved me a lot of hell. I was just extremely stubborn.
I think your idea of doing local air-b- b's is very wise. It will settle out in due time.
Wishing the best you, good friend!
Stay well! Kate
Even from a Fuids' Dynamics standpoint, BP's serious and complex condition. I always say, keep it in check best you can.
I read the most recent "Week That Perished" and it's BRUTAL. I adore Taki, and I cannot bring myself to believe that this was his decision. I still like the other writers, but it's a severely dessicated husk of what it once was without you. To think, John Derbyshire and Gavin McInnes and Jim Goad and David Cole once graced its pages!
Thank you, Philip. Yes, it's unfortunate. It was once a powerhouse site of iconoclastic authors. It's a shame things ended up as they did.
Same was once said about National Review back in the day . Sigh
National Review have an incredible ability to find incredible writers and not be able to keep them. John Derbyshire, Mark Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson, Conrad Black, Kyle Smith, Steve Sailer. All were incredible, and all have left the magazine
I think all the Great NR writers NR let go were/are White Gentiles
Yes -true , and well said .
it National Review s case it really was a j Neo Conservative takeover /coup ( Jonah Goldberg , David Frum , William Kristal , David Podhoretz) - these J Neo Conservatives and non J Neo Conservatives purged any and all Their writers who either :
Opposed any of their Neo Con wars in Iraq. ( Unpatiotic Conservatives NR - David Frum - the same &$@“ short Canadian J Neo Conman that wrote George W Bush ‘s worst ever presidential speech “ The Axis of Evil” speech ) , noticed “ The War against Christmas “ or who dared oppose open border immigration The Great Replacement of White Europeans in Europe and the UK and the replacement of White European Americans here in the USA.
Or firing John “ The Derb” Derbyshire from NR for his GOAT article at yes Takimag “ The Talk - the Non Black Version “
Thus was a Stalin type purge with show trials thus time done by ethnic J Neo Cons .
"the right is brimming with personality-cult blowhards who claim inerrancy"
Thank you for saying this. It's something I've noticed too, and it's a big hindrance if someone or some movement is trying to attract quality people. In my experience, it's not so much the Christians on the Right who are like that, although there are more than enough of those. It's also the Neo-Pagan He-Men who ate nails for breakfast outside their tent on the mountaintop, after doing dead-lifts next to their Italian sports car. Or so they said.
For me, a self-deprecating but steady Fred-MacMurray type is a lot more appealing and worthy of respect as a leader than those personality-cult types. Guys in the foxholes seem to think that way also.
Sorry you've had to move on from Takimag. I was one of those commenters there under a pseudonym, about 9 years ago. You and Goad were the main appeals for me there. When they shut down the comments section I got disgusted and moved on. I know that some of the commenters at Taki's in the old days could be unreasonable, but it was often a great place to have free-wheeling discussion. I was glad to find you on Substack.
> "It's also the Neo-Pagan He-Men who ate nails for breakfast outside their tent on the mountaintop, after doing dead-lifts next to their Italian sports car. Or so they said."
They also shave off their eyelashes. Combine that unhealthy habit with green frog memes; you have a recipe for the ages!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-men-are-shaving-off-their-eyelashes/ar-AA1DU95M?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Good Lord!!! I was blissfully unaware of that til now.
So we have that plus naturally-attractive girls blowing their lips up into balloon-like structures.
Back in the 90's I thought the self-mutilation stuff would die out soon. I'm not looking forward to what's next.
Amen!
Yeah, the personality cult types are really insufferable, and many of them are positively vile. The worst has to be that cancerous goblin Nick Fuentes. But what really disgusts me is the number of people who will mindlessly worship these psychotic retards. I don't think I realized how cultish so many people were until the internet spawned these loathsome creatures.
Yeah, I think that most people are definitely sheep. That's OK when there's a good shepherd, but otherwise not so much.
Great to see you back at your typewriter Dave!
I lived in the mountains of Colorado for a couple of years at one point, incredibly quiet. Then, I took a job managing this electronics place. For training, they sent me to Vegas for a week. So, two years of living in the most serene Rocky Mountain place you can imagine, and the next night, a hotel above the strip, with flashing neon lights, cop car sirens, and the usual din of Vegas... it was brutal!
Having spent many, many years going to Vegas, I think I actually prefer it to the deathly silence of that cabin. I put the air conditioning fan on JUST to give me SOME background noise!
It feels disloyal to read Taki's now!
Yes Dave, stay in that area, that area is you! Could Emerson or Thoreau have flourished outside the Concord area hothouse? I thinketh not.
BTW, how has Emerson not been fully cancelled yet? Two consecutive entries from an 1848 journal of his:
"I ask him, are you sure you have a boy? Then I will help at his birth.
"It is better to hold the negro race an inch under water than an inch over."
You have a great lifelong friend there, listen to him!
All good things come to an end, as do my weekly visits to Takimag. Oh, well, but you're here now on Substack -- so why not make this your new home? Plenty of us would happily pay to get regular Cole content right here. Doesn't need to be weekly, if you'd rather not, but once a month? Dave, please, keep writing -- somewhere, somehow -- from your new tiny house in Bumfuck Wherever USA. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and booze.
You've always been a great friend and supporter, Bill. Thank you! And once I get through with my move, I will definitely up my content here!
I'll miss you on Taki. So where else will you be sharing your vit and vizdim? You need a bigger platform. And how'd you get back on X? Maybe start an online thing and solicit commentary. "Cole's Trolls." I'm told, being a virtual nothing doer, that doing nothing is bad for hypertension. Hope you find a place you like. Incidentally, there's an acquaintance of an acquaintance of mine whose real nave is Beverly Hills. So I asked her "Why your parents do that?" Then "Okay, so why you not change it?" "Why, it's my name," she went. So people call you Bev? "Yah." Your column kept me sane. Now...
Thank you!
Dave is back on X ? If so, this is very big!
Yep, been back for about two or three weeks. If you scroll down my recent tweets, you'll see the interesting story of how it went down. I'd have written about it here, but the house-selling is REALLY taxing my time!
Holy shit he is & has been for some time, apparently.
https://x.com/DavidColeStein
What a bummer. All the best, Dave. Maybe Ann C will pick up the TWTP torch. Otherwise, they should ditch it.
Ann told me she'd never even try to replace me. Whoever's writing it now, it isn't her.