Victorino Matus
Victorino Matus is a former senior editor and current contributing editor to The Weekly Standard. Currently a deputy editor at the Washington Free Beacon, he writes on a variety of subjects, including politics, Germany, military history, pop culture, and food and drink. His work has also appeared in Policy Review, National Review, Armed Forces Journal, the New York Post, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He is currently working on a book, Vodka: An Illustrated History (Lyons Press, 2014). Matus is a graduate of Georgetown University.
Stories by Victorino Matus
Halt and Catch Fire
Samsung's phone fiasco.
2:05 PM, Oct 12, 2016
In a rush to beat out the latest iPhone, Samsung rolled out its Galaxy Note7 with one minor flaw: The battery. I'd hate to be the engineer who had to explain that one to company vice chairman and heir apparent Lee Jae-yong: "You see, sir, well, it's the battery. No big deal. It just, on occasion, catches fire. I mean, it's not like our exploding washing machines !" Without panicking, Samsung then issued replacements for those potentially flammable phones. But those replacements also had the sam Read more
Make the Big Mac Great Again
9:50 AM, Oct 11, 2016
"Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame bun." If you were around when this commercial came out in 1984, that description of the McDonald's Big Mac just rolls off the tongue. My wife hasn't had a Big Mac sandwich in years yet she still remembers the jingle (first created in 1975) word for word. Not so, the kids of today. In a corporate memo obtained by Julie Jargon of the Wall Street Journal , McDonald's executives not only worry that the iconic s Read more
Why the Chinese Have a Yen to Make Sushi
10:00 AM, Oct 05, 2016
Here's an interesting stat brought to you by Ana Swanson of the Washington Post : "A survey of 33 Japanese restaurants in the Washington area revealed that 12 were owned by Chinese Americans and 12 by Korean Americans. Only six were Japanese owned." And it's not just in the Washington area, mind you. Swanson reports on the growing trend of Chinese immigrants choosing Japanese over Chinese cooking. But why? Swanson writes, Eric Zhou grew up in China's Fujian province watching his father, a Read more
Citing Hitler, Philippine President Says He'd Happily 'Slaughter' Country's Addicts
Duterte's List.
1:09 PM, Sep 30, 2016
Yet another controversy has engulfed Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who, at a Friday press conference, compared his efforts to rid his country of drugs to Adolf Hitler's efforts to rid Europe of Jews. Now, you might be thinking, surely the media took his comments out of context. So let's see exactly what he said. Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there is three million, what is it, three million drug addicts, there are. I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least, if Germany had Read more
The Clean-Plate Club
From the October 3, 2016, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
6:30 AM, Sep 29, 2016
Towards the end of a recent lunch, I found myself ogling a friend's bowl of chicken pista korma. He was done, but there were still a few tender chunks of chicken left. It required enormous restraint on my part not to ask him, "Are you going to finish that?" And considering we were in a restaurant called The Bombay Club, I was tempted to say, "Think of all the starving children in India!" In short, I had become Sister Jean. My grade school in New Jersey was run by Dominican nuns. One of them, S Read more
Explaining the Appeal of 'Sully'
3:50 PM, Sep 26, 2016
Much like Apollo 13 , Sully is about a near-miss and contains an ending about which we're all aware. (Unless, of course, you've been living in your doomsday bunker. If so, allow me to pass on the message : The chair is against the wall. The chair is against the wall. John has a long mustache. John has a long mustache. ) But even so, the movie has already grossed more than $92 million domestically in three weeks. So what's the draw? For starters, Sully is directed by Clint Eastwood and s Read more
The Clean-Plate Club
Victorino Matus pockets provisions.
Oct 03, 2016
Towards the end of a recent lunch, I found myself ogling a friend’s bowl of chicken pista korma. He was done, but there were still a few tender chunks of chicken left. It required enormous restraint on my part not to ask him, "Are you going to finish that?" And considering we were in a restaurant called The Bombay Club, I was tempted to say, "Think of all the starving children in India!" In short, I had become Sister Jean. My grade school in New Jersey was run by Dominican nuns. One of them, S Read more
The Return of the Loafer
And the time George H.W. Bush attacked it.
4:29 PM, Sep 21, 2016
According to the Wall Street Journal , men's loafers are making a comeback. "Bergdorf Goodman's men's store, called Goodman's, is making a big push with loafers this year," writes the Journal 's Ray A. Smith. "A factor behind the loafer proliferation is the move to more smart-casual dress codes at work…. And the big fashion influence is the runaway success of Gucci's fur-lined loafers, launched last year." Fur-lined? I think I'll pass, lest I be accused of being a fancy boy . Smith trac Read more
'Post' Critic Dismantles Clinton-Kaine Book
7:00 AM, Sep 19, 2016
If the publisher of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine's Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future are looking for memorable mentions in the press, the Washington Post headline is a keeper. Unfortunately it isn't exactly a blurb. It's actually quite the opposite. The review by Carlos Lozada, the Post 's nonfiction critic, is titled: "A deplorable campaign book." His first sentence: "By the time I finished this book, I resented its existence." And he was just getting started. The ve Read more
Lincoln's Doctor's Dog
Breaking the Enigma code of publishing.
12:53 PM, Sep 12, 2016
By now it's well known that almost no one was interested in publishing J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book. The author has saved those rejection letters, stashed away in her attic. Later, when Rowling was looking for a U.S. publisher, the only taker was Scholastic Press. Numerous publishers turned down William Golding's Lord of the Flies , John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , and so on. But now a book claims to have figured out the formula for a bestselling novel. Incidentall Read more
Remembering 'Heat' With Michael Mann and Friends
A look back at the Hollywood masterpiece, 20 years later.
5:01 PM, Sep 08, 2016
Vincent Hanna was strung out on coke. If that means anything to you, read on. (And if it doesn't, read on, anyway. I need the clicks.) This was just one of many revelations during a panel discussion following a Wednesday night screening of Heat , a remastered 20th anniversary edition of Michael Mann's crime-thriller masterpiece. The panel included Mann, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Val Kilmer. Also, it was moderated by Christopher Nolan. (I fainted just typing that.) At L.A.'s Samuel Goldwy Read more
Everything On the Table: A Conversation With Michel Richard
The late great French chef on the Food Network, cooking apprenticeships, and never throwing away the bread.
8:35 AM, Aug 27, 2016
In the summer of 2007, I was working on a story for THE WEEKLY STANDARD about the cult of celebrity chefs. As part of my reporting, I spent time with Michel Richard, who then ran two restaurants, the acclaimed Citronelle and the brasserie Central Michel Richard. It was inside the gastronomic temple of Citronelle that I interviewed the chef. Richard, wearing his cooking whites, was in exceedingly good spirits, having just won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef. He'd often been likened Read more
Get Scrod With Hillary!
There are alternatives to the fifty-grand-a-head lobster dinner fundraisers.
3:24 PM, Aug 24, 2016
So which is it? Hillary Clinton, on the stump, telling voters she cares about the little guy, or Hillary Clinton at an intimate gathering that charges $50,000 per plate? As a subhed in Wednesday's Washington Post put it, "High-dollar fundraisers contrast with promise to help middle class." Post reporters Matea Gold and John Wagner go on to detail a Clinton event in Cape Cod last Sunday at the home of Democratic activist Elaine Schuster. "The price of entry to see Hillary Clinton on Sunda Read more
Return to Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan is back.
11:31 AM, Aug 10, 2016
It's been two years since Christopher Nolan had a film out— Interstellar —and four years since The Dark Knight Rises . He's currently working on Dunkirk , slated for 2017. It's been all hush-hush until a segment of a trailer leaked last week. This led to Warner Bros. releasing an "announcement" trailer, which you can see here . It's a teaser, clocking in at a mere minute and six seconds. We don't see much except for the tides and a mass of troops bracing for some sort of attack. Judg Read more
How Trump Can Avoid Making 'Killer' Gaffes
A helpful guide for Second Amendment people like the Donald.
9:10 PM, Aug 09, 2016
It's truly unfortunate what happened to Donald Trump Tuesday . To have one's words all twisted and misconstrued—it's rather unfair. First, here's what the Republican nominee said: "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick … and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." Trump said "I don't know." If I'm hearing him right (and maybe I'm not!), he's Read more
Going Off Script
6:50 AM, Aug 09, 2016
Last summer, workers removing chalkboards from a high school in Oklahoma City discovered another set of boards hiding underneath. They had last seen the light of day in 1917. The boards were still chalk-marked with drawings, a calendar, and mathematics. But perhaps most striking were the writings—all of it in cursive. As Sherry Kishore, principal at Emerson High School, said to the Oklahoman , "The penmanship blows me away … totally … because you don't see a lot of that anymore. We have kid Read more
Stand by Me, 30 Years Later
"What the hell is Goofy?"
11:53 AM, Aug 01, 2016
Kudos to Variety for interviewing members of the cast and crew of Stand By Me , which came out in the summer of 1986. As I've insisted here before , if you grew up in the 1980s, '86 was a hell of a year for pictures: Top Gun , Platoon , Ferris Bueller's Day Off , Aliens , About Last Night , and Back to School , to name a just a few. And then there was Stand By Me , which was made on a budget of $7.5 million and went on to gross more than $52 million. Hard to believe, but almost ever Read more
Corzine Ponies Up
8:42 AM, Jul 27, 2016
Five years after the collapse of MF Global , a settlement will soon be reached between Jon Corzine, the former CEO of the now-bankrupt brokerage firm, and customers who claim their funds were wrongfully used to offset the shortfall, making those accounts unavailable to them. Although Corzine and his attorneys insist this was not the case, the onetime New Jersey senator and governor and Goldman Sachs chairman has agreed to fork over $132 million. But how much of it will be out of his own pocket? Read more
Home Alone
Victorino Matus's bachelor blues.
Aug 01, 2016
Each summer, my wife and children head up to Connecticut to spend a week with my in-laws. Believe me, I’d love to join them for a fun-filled week of swimming, cookouts, and cocktails—or as Jack Nicholson put it in As Good As It Gets , "good times, noodle salad." Alas, I am stuck in our nation's capital (a lovely swamp this time of year) helping to put out this fine publication. Now I know what you're thinking. A week without the wife and kids? No nagging, no hassling, no dishes to clean? I sh Read more
What is Pasta is Prologue
Studies show another bad food is now good for you.
8:30 AM, Jul 22, 2016
First came the studies saying red meat was good for you. Then came news that butter should be embraced over margarine. It's okay to eat eggs again. Now comes word that, based on a recent study, pasta is not the carb-laden villain we once knew. To the contrary, it can be an essential part of your diet. Note to Olive Garden executives: It's time to bring back the Never Ending Pasta Bowl® . As reported in the Washington Post , The Neuromed Institute of Pozzilli found that eating pasta in mo Read more
A Boozy Brexit
There's much to grouse about.
3:30 PM, Jul 21, 2016
Last month, when voters in the U.K. decided to exit the European Union, the pound plummeted and market chaos ensued. The media speculated as to which companies might pull out of the country. And everyone wondered how the referendum would impact the flow of immigration. But there's an even graver concern: Could Brexit cause a spike in the price of Scotch whisky? A recent statement by Christine LoCascio, senior vice president of international trade at the Distilled Spirits Council, reads, in pa Read more
The Kitchen Nightmares of Eric Ripert
8:45 AM, Jul 13, 2016
Despite being one of the most celebrated chefs in the world—and hanging out with Anthony Bourdain —Eric Ripert still has a recurring nightmare. It involves his former boss, the legendary Joël Robuchon. When I interviewed Ripert last month for the Washington Free Beacon , we chatted at length about his recent memoir, 32 Yolks , his philosophy behind Le Bernardin (three Michelin stars, four New York Times stars), and his experience working for Robuchon in Paris. "Violence was in many wa Read more
A Story of Boy Meets Girl
I'm sorry, what were you saying?
9:01 AM, Jul 12, 2016
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted a study showing that people who tell good stories "are happier in life and in love." Yes, research was conducted to determine this. Specifically, "New research, published this month in the journal Personal Relationships, shows that women find men who are good storytellers more appealing," writes Elizabeth Bernstein. But what she discovered next will BLOW YOUR MIND. Sorry ladies, there's nothing exactly mind-blowing here, just my attem Read more
MacArthur Recalled
8:42 AM, Jul 06, 2016
This past weekend, Wall Street Journal books editor and WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor Robert Messenger reviewed MacArthur at War in the pages of WSJ . This latest history by Walter R. Borneman focuses strictly on the Pacific theater during the Second World War and reappraises the actions of the legendary general. Messenger opens by contrasting the treatment of British general Arthur Percival, who "was resoundingly condemned in Britain" for surrendering Singapore to the Japanese an Read more
The Loaded Bloomin' Onion: The Director's Cut
Bloomin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
3:40 PM, Jul 05, 2016
A few weeks ago I agreed to take on my most perilous assignment yet: review Outback Steakhouse's Loaded Bloomin' Onion for the Washington Free Beacon . With little help from my family, I hardly made a dent. I did receive loads of feedback, though I never really got around to reviewing the appetizer itself. So how was it? If you peel away the hype (okay, I'll stop now), the addition of fries draws attention away from the star of the show, those legendary deep-fried onion straws. It's a n Read more
Austria's Trump Loses Close Election
3:01 PM, May 23, 2016
In the end, Norbert Hofer came up 31,026 votes short of Making Austria Great Again. The Freedom Party of Austria’s presidential candidate lost to Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green party economist, by a margin narrower than the Brenner Pass. Just last night Hofer was leading by 144,006 votes, but after all the absentee ballots were tallied (it takes time to count the votes of every single lonely goatherders), it was Van der Bellen who was hearing the sound of music. (Okay, I'll stop.) Not that Read more
A Movie He Can't Refuse
11:04 AM, Apr 28, 2016
When Ted Cruz is standing on the debate stage, does he ever reflect on the words of Michael Corleone? "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment." After all, the Texas senator and presidential contender did recently admit The Godfather Part III is one of his favorite movies. Or is he at all bothered by the scene where Vincent teaches his cousin Mary how to make gnocchi, right before the two get all incestual? It was an awkward subplot made all the more awkward by the actress playing Read more
The Diceman Cometh Back
12:35 PM, Apr 05, 2016
"Hickory dickory dock." If the next line that comes to your head is something obscene, you have Andrew Dice Clay to blame. The 58-year-old comedian, known for his raunchy rhymes and wildly offensive stand-up material, is the subject of a recent Washington Post profile. Clay is in the midst of a comeback: He had roles in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and HBO's Vinyl (co-created by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger). He is also starring in the semi-autobiographical series Dice on Showtime. Th Read more