Robert George, Joseph Bottum, Robert Wilken, Richard John Neuhaus
After this year’s board meetings, several of us gathered for . . . well, a hootenanny, I guess you’d have to call it. Little did we know that our junior fellow Nathaniel Peters used his camera to record some snippets—which would have been a disaster, except that Robby George can actually play. Here he is, for instance, playing the theme from Deliverance :
Mostly, though, the evening was more fun than competent, and several people suggested that our friends might like to see the results. Here’s the whole gang, with Hadley Arkes joining in, on the Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many Colors”:
Turns out that our assistant editor Ryan Anderson is very good on the hammer dulcimer, a tuned percussion instrument he bought recently because his marimbas and vibraphones don’t fit in a New York apartment. Here is a snippet from his rendition of the William Butler Yeats song “Down by the Salley Gardens”:
And, for a laugh, here’s “Shootin’ with Rasputin” on the autoharp:
People often ask what life in New York is like these days. Now you know. Or at least you know how it is when the geniuses of First Things take time off from their monumental labors.
Kathy Barr, Robert George, Joseph Bottum, Russell Hittinger, George Weigel, David Novak
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
