Nathaniel Peters on the virtues of the speakeasy :
If you go down St. Mark’s Place, between First and Avenue A, you’ll find a hotdog place–Crif Dogs, to be exact. If you go into Crif, you’ll see a counter at the end serving hotdogs. Two old arcade machines sit on the right. On your left there’s a phone booth, unremarkable since payphones were last used when those arcade machines were brand new. But if you go inside the booth, you’ll notice that there isn’t a payphone, but a normal one with a note saying to dial 1. Dial 1, tell the man how many people you have, and the wall of the phone booth will open to your left. You walk into a low-ceilinged, small oak-panel and brick room. A few stray taxidermied animals hang on the walls, including a genuine jackalope (a jackrabbit with deer horns) and a bear wearing a bowler hat. Welcome to PDT.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
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If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
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