Interiors and Disagreeability

Manhattan’s Gilded Age Interiors

Jane Coombs | Engelsberg Ideas | 20th October 2026

Appreciation of James Wall Finn, the “unknown” artist behind Manhattan’s most beautiful interiors. His talents were discreet and versatile, augmenting architectural features. For the Morgan Library, Finn decorated a “16C Florentine coffered ceiling with aged-looking coats of arms sourced from a book of Renaissance breastplates. It was done with such accuracy that it has ‘fooled at least one historian’” (1,500 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

Disagreeability As A Superpower

Conor Fitzgerald | The Fitzstack | 20th October 2026

Under the intense social scrutiny of the internet, the willingness to be disagreeable is power. Trump, Nick Fuentes and Michael Tracey are examples of this phenomenon. People who don’t care about being accused of bad things “become important because they’re the only ones who can function under a system that weaponises social opprobrium on an industrial scale, facilitated by technology” (3,200 words)