Most of the eulogies for the Weekly Standard mentioned the magazine’s excellent writing, though none I saw mentioned the man who was responsible for much of it: Philip Terzian. Phil was the literary editor of the Standard for most of its existence, in addition to being the unsigned author of its witty end-page parodies.
I contributed to the back-of-the-book from time to time, mostly with book reviews – Jan Morris, Clive James, Geoff Dyer – though sometimes with stories that would have had – that did have – a hard time finding homes elsewhere. These included an account of a high-minded Mediterranean cruise, a screed on the glut of books about the pilgrimage to Santiago in Spain, and a cheerful essay on the much-maligned author book tour. This last piece became probably the only article from a political weekly to be included in The Best American Travel Writing, chosen by that famous neo-con Anthony Bourdain.
