This essay is adapted from Mark's book A Song For The Season: Summer is icumen in and one's thoughts turn naturally to a song for the season. A good summer song has to be more than just a tune with a seasonal lyric. There are zillions of those: Here Comes Summer School is out, oh happy day... Which original lyric has been blotted out in my mind and replaced with some long ago jingle: Here Comes Summer Now let's get fresh with Fabergé... But there's no real scent of summer in the tune. I like a song that gives you a palpable whiff of time and place: Memphis In June A shady veranda Under a Sunday-blue sky Memphis In June And cousin Miranda Making a rhubarb pie... Hoagy Carmichael was one of the few big-time Tin Pan Alley A-list composers ...

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Some of the more elevated observations about Psycho approach the level of poetry, but too often these critics are also, quite possibly, seeing things that not even Hitchcock himself conceived of.

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Typically, transcripts of Mark's videos and live appearances are among the myriad perks reserved for Mark Steyn Club members. With Mark still "on assignment," we thought we'd offer a sampling of Club benefits by making this transcript available for those who prefer reading at their leisure to watching.

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While Mark's away, and by request of members, we're experimenting with an occasional "open thread" forum at SteynOnline. If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club and there's something on your mind not covered by Mark's columns or audio-video presentations, feel free to raise it here. The whole world can read it, but Club membership is required to write it. So, if you've been toying with signing up, either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter, you're more than welcome to sign up and give it your best below. Please remember our usual comment strictures apply - except the one about going off-topic, as in this case the topics are your call. Otherwise, no profanity, no ad hominem attacks, no URL-fests, and don't go crazily ...

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This Bastille Day, let's take a look back at a classic French film reviewed by Mark on its 50th anniversary in 2014: Half-a-century ago - February 19th 1964 - one of my favorite films opened in cinemas across France - Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's one of those movies that if I ever come across channel-surfing I usually find myself stopping and watching through to the end. Its composer was Michel Legrand, not yet a name in Hollywood and the Oscar-winning composer of "Windmills Of Your Mind", as quoted in Paragraph 111 of my Answer to Plaintiff's Amended Complaint in Mann vs Steyn et al. His big anglophone hits still lay ahead. Since Les Parapluies, I've acquired a modest connection to M Legrand, and not ...

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It's like that old Persian proverb, let no good drought go by without blaming the Jews for it.

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If you missed our livestream Clubland Q&A earlier today, here's the action replay. Simply click above and settle back for an hour of my answers to questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet. On today's show we chewed over, among other topics, hard borders and soft Brexits, the Inspector General's report on the Hillary fix, Hamiltonian immigrants, chaste lawyers, and Italian bedfellows.

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Bertolt Brecht's advice, as taken up by the new Germany, and France, and Britain...

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Several old friends from Steyn shows past have been making headlines in recent days, so, if you've missed these interviews, we thought you might enjoy catching up. First up is Lindsay Shepherd...

Next is Lionel Shriver, the American novelist who...

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Michael E Mann's defamation suit against me enters its sixth year in the constipated bowels of DC justice...

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The Corner post that launched a lawsuit...

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As I mentioned on yesterday's Clubland Q&A, I have to take off for a few weeks to remote parts in order to crack the back of a project that's been on hold for fifteen months because Cary Katz and CRTV were suing me for $10 million. (They lost.) At any rate, the coming weeks will take me somewhat off the grid WiFi-wise, and that can't be helped because it's a very small window of opportunity. Katz and CRTV have re-sued me in multiple jurisdictions, this time for a combined $20 million.

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Despite denunciations from the mayor of London and Houses of Parliament, and every English activist group imaginable, Donald and Melania Trump have arrived in the United Kingdom for a two-day working visit. It's almost as though visiting heads of state take precedence over the petty virtue signaling so ubiquitous among politicians as of late. Trump will be meet with Prime Minister Theresa May and have tea with Her Majesty before heading off to his golf course in Scotland. As with anywhere an American president goes, the security bill will be rather obscene. Though it's only when Trump is the protectee that lawmakers take issue with the security state. One Labour representative is concerned that police will not have enough time to rest ...

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Tonight President Trump will announce his pick to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy - or as Mark likes to call him - Supreme Intergalactic Arbiter Anthony Kennedy. With Mark away "on assignment", we wanted to share a few of his thoughts that are particularly topical today. In August of 2015, Mark responded to a SteynOnline reader's critique of Trump that he's "not a conservative" and "our only recent Conservative President, Reagan, was the one who appointed Kennedy, who is far more Conservative than anyone Trump would appoint...." Here's a bit of what Mark had to say: As Michael sees it, every single leading Republican of the last quarter-century has merely been "pretending to be a conservative" - which kind of ...

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Sail with Steyn and his special guests...

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Cary Katz's four Steyn suits (and counting)

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A case that should never have been brought finally ends.

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Steyn on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, F Scott Fitzgerald Anthony Hope, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson and H G Wells

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with Mark and his guests Bananarama, Mike Batt, Don Black, Simon Climie, Christopher Cross, The Human League, Julio Iglesias, Lulu, Artie Shaw, Paul Simon, Jule Styne and Andy Williams (plus bonus appearance by Ted Cruz)

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Mark celebrates a classic love poem

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