Dirty Words

We Do Sort of Wish Sam Sifton Could Get Away With Stuff Like This

Photo: Disney

Today on his Twitter, Sam Sifton points us to A.A. Gill’s Vanity Fair thrashing of L’Ami Louis in Paris. Sifton calls it “this morning’s must-read”! (He’s right — it’s good.) But you just know that Sifton, who has his own special way with words, has to be seething with jealousy that the prudish New York Times would never let him get away with using the kinds of adjective phrases that Gill does in this story. The whole thing is downright Joycean! The place is “painted a shiny, distressed dung brown”; tablecloths are “labially pink”; the staff bulges out of their jackets “with the meaty malevolence of gouty buffalo”; and “florid” Brits tell him the roast chicken is “like Bridget Bardot’s tits,” which doesn’t even really make sense when you think about it. Anyway, adults only! [VF via Sam Sifton/Twitter]

We Do Sort of Wish Sam Sifton Could Get Away With Stuff Like This