Met Pearls

When Havel Met Biden

Oscar Clarke | Quillette | 29th August 2023

Interesting tidbit from diplomatic history. In 1997, Václav Havel met Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to discuss the possibility of the Czech Republic joining Nato. Biden was less than enthusiastic. "Mexico is fifty times as important to us as you are!" he said, before concluding that "no one is asking you to join" and "democracy is a bitch" (1,680 words)

Last Summer Pearls

Michael Malay | Dark Mountain Project | 30th August 2023

The decline of Scottish freshwater mussels means losing more than molluscs. "The disappearance of a species is always a plural event, because it involves the unravelling of an interconnected world." In this case, that loss includes "the summer walkers": the semi-nomadic Gaelic-speaking mussel-fishers who roved the lochs, living off the proceeds of the pearls they found (1,835 words)