There was the uniform: a Ralph Lauren flag sweater one summer, a Tommy Hilfiger stars-and-stripes rugby the next, both bought with the same unspoken understanding that this was simply what you wore that week of the year. Jack Rogers sandals were non-negotiable for any boarding school girl. Maybe you were handed the J.Crew catalog in June and told to pick out a bathing suit before the good colors sold out, back when the blueberry pie at the farm stand was still a few dollars, not the $80 it runs now. There was a red Igloo Playmate in the trunk, a Weber kettle grill in the yard, red Solo cups on every table, no matter the zip code, because these were the props of the holiday, non-negotiable regardless of tax bracket. You showed up to the party in the family’s old Defender, the very truck that die-hard collectors are now reportedly paying upward of $300,000 to have stripped down and rebuilt, engine and all, per a recent Wall Street Journal report from Chavie Lieber, because nostalgia for a truck that once hauled hay is apparently worth six figures now. And something about the holiday always made you feel a little bit like CBK at the family compound in Hyannis Port, even if your house didn’t have a name.

But things are different now. Where the old status symbols were about knowing the right references, the new ones are about scale. The wooden water skis have given way to eFoils. The hot dog comes topped with caviar. The pie is now $80. There are Yeti Tundra 350s running north of $1,300, packing seafood towers that cost four times as much. And the single biggest status marker of a Fourth of July weekend this year isn’t the car in the driveway or the boat at the dock, it’s whether you have a chef on hand for your guests.

This year alone, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married at Madison Square Garden. Barney Greengrass is doing a pop-up out of Babe’s Diner in Sag Harbor (and RPS was the first to break the news). And Michael Rubin threw his annual White Party at his $50 million oceanfront estate in the Hamptons. (For the best coverage I’ve seen so far, check out Rory Satran’s newsletter, The Hamptons Chronicle).

Still, plenty of it hasn’t changed: the fireworks crack open over the water same as always, the lobster rolls slide out of their buns onto the sand, and somewhere in every town in the country, someone is waving a flag along a parade route with no idea what an eFoil is, and no interest in finding out.

Have a great holiday everyone. No matter how you celebrate it.

And for those looking for non-holiday contact, we’ve got it: everything to do in Nantucket this weekend, the prep school admissions process when it comes to athletes, the Hampton Jitney A/C situation, a new private club at the Four Seasons Downtown New York, one of the most eligible bachelors in New York is off the market and more…

Prep school pipeline, Nantucket Fourth of July, Hampton Jitney, Michael Rubin's White Party, Ivanka Trump, Four Seasons Club 27, luxury hotel memberships, Laurence Milstein, Thomas Isen, Richie Jackson, Paige Lorenze's bachelorette, Chicken Box, Reddit snark and more….

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More on the trip once I’m home. I’m flying straight from here to Sag Harbor on Friday, but until then, let’s talk about something decidedly American in honor of the Fourth of July: the safest street in the Hamptons. I thought I knew the answer. Then I started asking around.

So instead of declaring a winner, I think it’s more fun to turn it into a debate. One street is in Sagaponack, one is in Southampton and one is in East Hampton. Read the cases, then tell me which one you think deserves the title. (Paid subscribers, I’m looking at you.)

And for those of you who couldn’t care less about the Hamptons—or who have simply had their fill of them this summer—we’ll also be talking about how Ned’s Club decided not to raise their dues after RPS reported on their emailing debacle, $600 Hamptons blowout surge pricing, fake Vanity Fair covers, Warren Buffett's Gates Foundation pause, Wimbledon debentures, the new luxury arms race for access, and more. After the jump!

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But leaked documents can only tell you so much. Until now, no former Dialog employee has explained what it was really like to work inside the organization. RPS spoke with a former Dialog employee in what we believe is the first interview with someone who worked behind the scenes. They agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, and we have removed identifying details to protect their privacy. What emerges is a version of Dialog that is, in some ways, stranger than the headlines.

Perhaps the interview’s biggest revelation, however, concerns Peter Thiel himself. Despite becoming the public face of Dialog after the leaks, the former employee says Thiel was largely absent during their tenure. He rarely attended programming, eventually allowed his membership to lapse, and, despite efforts to bring him back, remained far less involved than many people assumed.

The interview also offers an unusually candid look at how Dialog viewed its own members, how people were evaluated behind the scenes, why some attendees became anxious about being constantly judged by their peers, and why the former employee believes the internet has fundamentally misunderstood what Dialog actually was.

Their conclusion may be the most memorable line in the entire conversation: “Working there convinced me the Illuminati could never exist.” (For more background, I suggest reading the Wired story on the Dialog leak here. Dialog’s executive director, Raffi Grinberg, also has a rather active Substack How to Be A Grownup—another thing the press has not noted—but it seems unrelated to the network).

If you can’t commit to—or stomach—a whole interview about the wannabe Illuminati, don’t fret: we also have Amazon's OpenAI dilemma, why Cannes Lions felt different this year, the World Cup Fan Matrix, Nantucket's population mystery, a Hamptons real estate scandal, and an evening supporting the East End's invisible workforce.

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In London, June is packed with social fixtures like Royal Ascot and the Queen's Club Championships. In Aspen, this past weekend was the Food & Wine Classic. Today, though, we're talking about a different food and wine festival, one that may soon become the most exclusive in the world.

You haven't heard about the Gstaad Wine & Food Festival yet — but that’s about to change. The soon-to-be most exclusive food and wine festival in the world will debut in the Swiss Alps in June 2027, capped at 1,500 guests, with Albert Adrià, Alain Ducasse, and Daniel Boulud already on board, Château Pontet-Canet and Château Cos d'Estournel among the confirmed wineries, and no chef cooking for more than 70 people. For comparison, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen just wrapped its 43rd year yesterday with 5,000 weekend passes sold. This is something else entirely. I spoke to the two men behind it, Sacha Lichine — founder of Whispering Angel — and Lee Brian Schrager, who created both the South Beach and New York City Wine & Food Festivals, to find out everything. Foodies and winos won’t want to miss this (neither today’s issue or the festival).

Sworn off the juice entirely and just cranked your Ozempic pen up another notch? Don't worry. It's not all vintages and tasting menus today. We've also got why even $15 million condos can't erase the memory of Surfside, David Hockney's impossibly chic funeral, status-symbol car-washers in the Hamptons, the Hamptons' changing Fourth of July pecking order, and more.

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Today, we’re diving into one of the more interesting shifts happening in New York’s private club scene. British members club Maison Estelle has abandoned its plans for an Upper East Side townhouse after learning it wouldn’t be able to secure a liquor license if it intended to use the rooftop, a key part of the club’s…

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But you’re going to have to forgive me, because it really was that good. Words like “epic” and “best ever” and “glamorous” were being thrown around. And if that wasn’t enough, people started writing about it — before the thing was even over. So I’m going to need a pass on this one. It’s like expecting a Volvo and getting a vintage Ferrari. You knew it was going to be good. Just not that good.

Which is why I was planning on giving you a full debrief today. But then some news came up. So you’ll be getting the party analysis later this week, and today, you’ll be getting the story of how Ned’s Club, the private membership club arm of The Ned hotel brand, emailed their members about raising their annual dues and accidentally forgot to CC everyone. That’s right. The email blasts, which were sent May 22nd and continued today, went to a hundred members at a time. RPS has the details below.

Also in this issue: the NBA Finals' hottest collectible, $900 professional parade spot-holders, Wall Street's work-from-home exception, Southampton embraces giant public sports screenings, BLADE's 8-minute U.S. Open helicopter shuttle, a rare look inside Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman's private art collection, and why Boston will be partying two hours later than Nantucket this summer….

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After my party Wednesday, which was followed by back-to-back dinners and lunches, I needed some time to myself. Time to recharge the social battery. I watched the Knicks alone in my apartment, working away on my computer, until it got very clear we were about to win. Then I walked out into the street.

It was like there was a block party going on. People were running up and down, screaming out their windows, shouting from their balconies. Strangers were hugging, and strangers were hugging me. There were pockets where the crowds were so dense I had to shout excuse me over the celebrating just to break through. These are streets that have been quiet at 11pm on a Saturday since Covid. Now they were raging. A guy on a bike was driving around handing out Knicks-colored cookies. There were fireworks. Someone was sabering a champagne bottle on the front doorstep of their brownstone. People were dancing in the spray. I'm seeing some insane photos of trash on the streets today, and they're making me cringe — but last night, it felt otherworldly.

Speaking of the Knicks: today we'll be talking about the members club that won the watch parties. Organically, for weeks I'd been hearing that Crane Club, the restaurant and members lounge from Tao Group Hospitality, was the best place to catch the Knicks games if you couldn't be there in person. The place had televisions (plural); people were spending money, a lot of it; and the room was always full of the type of people you want around while watching a game — real Knicks fans who just happened to be hedge fund managers, sports agents, and the type of people who actually know what they're cheering for. And word of mouth on Crane only got louder as the playoffs went on. So today I pinged Noah Tepperberg, Co-CEO of Tao Group Hospitality, who I've known for as long as I've lived in New York — which is to say, longer than either of us would probably like to admit.

And for the non-New Yorkers sick of hearing about Knicks mania, I’ve got plenty for you too: a look at Nantucket’s thrift store wars, an over-abundance of English country houses with not enough buyers, the hair combs from The Row’s SS26 show finally up for sale (if you’re fast), an update on the SpaceX IPO (plus a recap of a phone call I had with Elon Musk six-ish years ago), major lay-offs coming to the Lambs Club by July 27, a first look at Soho Farmhouse in Hudson Valley, and more.

As for my party last Wednesday — and what a party it was, huh? — I’ll save the full debrief for its own letter: the logistics, the photos, all of it.

But today, we’ve got other things to chat about.

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Regular readers will remember BLADE’s Hamptons Limitless Pass, the all-you-can-fly package between Manhattan and the Hamptons. This year, the pass costs $25,000, up 39 percent from last year’s $18,000 price tag. The Limitless means you can fly as many times as you want, no blackout dates, on a Bell 407 helicopter or amphibious seaplane, Manhattan to the Hamptons seven days a week through Labor Day, with JFK and Newark transfers included. Recently, I started hearing stories about what some people do with unlimited helicopter rides at their disposal.

Considering there are only 15 weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the appeal is obvious. Once people have it, behavior goes one of two ways: nothing changes, or things get a little unhinged. I want to talk about the hilarious stuff people do to cash in on an unlimited helicopter pass. After all, there is a reason these passes sell so well.

In fact, I assumed they had sold out entirely. It turns out BLADE simply stopped marketing them. (In actuality, I’m hearing that if you call directly, there are still a handful available.) Considering how long it took me to get out East on Friday, perhaps it really is money well spent. After all, we’ve still got 13 weekends left in the summer.

Also in today’s letter: a new members club coming to Nantucket, Cotswolds drama thanks to Ellen Degeneres, Donohue’s Steak House’s official closing date, wunderkind chef Flynn McGarry on where all the spring vegetables went, Benjamin Millipied and Roland Garros, what everyone is saying about the SpaceX IPO, Caryn Zucker and David Rubenstein tied the knot and more…

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This is the longest I’ve gone without sending a letter since launching RPS. A weekend was involved, so perhaps I can give myself a pass. The real culprit, however, is a combination of deadlines and the RPS party, which is now less than a week away.

Actually, “party” may be underselling it. At this point, it feels more like an event. The whole thing has become so absurdly over-the-top that it will rival many of the weddings I’ve attended. If you’re confirmed, consider this fair warning. And while the guest list is technically closed, Founding Members operate under a different set of rules. (You can RSVP whenever you’d like. You’re family.)

Today, I want to talk about Texas, which is currently tied with Connecticut as RPS’s fourth-largest subscriber state. (You can probably guess the top three: New York, California, and Florida.) For most of the pandemic, every story about a wealthy person was a Florida story. Every editor wanted Florida. Every hedge fund manager was moving to Miami! Every billionaire was buying in Palm Beach! And every magazine writer seemed to have a theory about what would happen when New Yorkers discovered boating.

I know because I spent years writing those stories. Then something strange happened. The people who spent years talking about Florida? They suddenly started talking about Texas. And I don’t mean just Austin. I mean Texas Texas.

Late last year, I was working on a story for The New York Times that had absolutely nothing to do with Texas. My editor nevertheless asked whether we could somehow wedge it into the story. Suddenly, Texas was everywhere.

Part of the fascination is economic. The state has become a magnet for corporate relocations, energy investment, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and finance stuff. Dallas increasingly competes for firms that once would have defaulted to New York. Austin continues to attract founders and venture capital. Wealth is flowing in to the the Lone Star state from both coasts. Economics only explains part of the story. And the more interesting part is what happened after all those people arrived.

That brings us to Boerne. Located about thirty miles north of San Antonio, the affluent Hill Country town (pronounced BUR-nee) is now one of the most desirable addresses in Texas. No, really. Part of this is because Boerne used to be really private. Until Bravo showed up.

Last month, the network announced a new reality series set in Texas Hill Country that will follow a group of affluent women in the area. In most places, this would barely qualify as news. As Andy Cohen-aficionados know, Bravo has spent the better part of two decades turning wealthy ZIP codes into entertainment. You’ve got Beverly Hills, Orange County, New York, Miami. But the community of Boerne’s reaction was unusually intense. That’s what I want to talk about today.

And if you don’t mess with Texas—or reality television—there is plenty more for you in today’s letter: a Barney Greengrass pop-up coming to Babe's in Sag Harbor next month, Pan Am's newly announced Pan Am Journeys, a 19-day Africa journey aboard a semi-private jet (all yours for $129,000), Prada's members-club-but-not-really-members-club takeover of The Chelsea Hotel, a little-known Upper East Side restaurant that just earned two stars from The New York Times, and more.

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JPMorgan put out a 2026 summer reading list, and when I shared it, they reshared me. I had no idea it would land the way it did on Instagram, but I’m thrilled to have so many new subscribers because of it. (Who knew my biggest traffic drivers this month would be reshares by JPMorgan and Lindsay Lohan? If that’s not range for a newsletter, I don’t know what is.)

It did make me realize how much appetite there is for curated summer reading lists from people who know what they’re talking about — and one suggestion that came in from the inbox stuck out.

Once upon a time, summer reading meant whatever your English teacher assigned. Today, many ambitious students have a second list: the one recommended by the private college counselors helping them navigate applications and think about what comes next. Sophie Sajnani, founder of River Consulting, kindly shared the list she gives her students. Sajnani works with teenagers from schools including Dalton and Spence, as well as families across New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and other major cities.

There are a lot of college counseling companies out there, but River Consulting sets itself apart with one of the first AI literacy programs designed specifically for high school students. Sajnani comes from a software engineering background — and yet she still believes reading is one of the most important habits a student can develop. The future is here whether we like it or not; it’s nice to see someone holding on to the things that still matter.

“We believe critical thinking comes first,” she says. “Strong reading and comprehension skills are the foundation that allows students to thoughtfully evaluate AI-generated output.”

The full list is below. And if you’re already fully stockpiled with books for the season, RPS has plenty of other things for you too, including Shelter Island’s most expensive house sale, YALE pivoting on standardized testing, the definition of a “med-a-terre,” a Carbone expansion for the Thompson Street location and more.

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There was a time when Barefoot Contessa was simply a specialty food store in Westhampton before it became Ina Garten’s billion-dollar lifestyle universe. When Della Femina wasn’t just an advertising legend’s surname, but a restaurant people actually dressed up to go to. And a time when a stop at Dreesen’s after the beach was just part of the rhythm of being out east.

The Hamptons nightlife ecosystem used to feel a lot scrappier too. Before Southampton became all sprinter vans idling outside Sant Ambroeus, there was Jet East (remember Jet East?). The velvet ropes and models smoking cigarettes outside made North Sea Road feel adjacent to the Meatpacking District. Dune eventually took over the space, and existed only for a flash-in-the-pan. Leonardo DiCaprio was a near-constant presence there during those summers. Is it even possible anymore to set off the kind of paparazzi frenzy that happened outside that place out East? I think it may be inconceivable to try. And we can’t forget Pink Elephant, which took over the Capri and turned Southampton into bottle-service central for a few chaotic summers.

Lizzie Grubman’s infamous SUV incident became one of the defining tabloid moments of Hamptons excess. And then there was Sir Ivan’s Castle in Water Mill, with a dragon and pastrami trays at four in the morning, and the infamous “sex dungeon” everyone talked about but few claimed to have actually seen (…despite that it was literally right there when you walked in?). The place was equal parts Studio 54, Burning Man, and Times Square. The mythology around those parties feels different now after the Alexander brothers case and the allegations tied to the property through multiple lawsuits.

And some things, thank God, refuse to die. The Hampton Jitney has somehow survived more than fifty years of traffic, hedge fund booms, influencer migrations, and those damn sprinter vans. The East Hampton Star has been publishing continuously since 1885. The Surf Lodge, now entering its late teenage years, lives to see another summer — this time with a Popeyes chicken tenders collaboration.

Maidstone Club and the Hampton Classic will outlive all of us. There are still lines outside the Stephen Talkhouse. You can still get grilled cheese and ice cream at Candy Kitchen. This is because the social choreography changes, but some landmarks remain untouchable.

Others are symbolic of life outside the East End. Diddy’s White Parties have effectively been replaced by Michael Rubin’s all-white party, which come with significantly better PR. In Sag Harbor, residents are actively petitioning to stop Main Street from becoming “Chain Street.” And the pop-up economy has fully arrived: Chelsea Living Room at Gurney’s and Dante taking over the Pridwin on Shelter Island. Collaborations migrate east alongside everyone else.

The membershipification of the Hamptons exists, too. The Dune Deck membership model feels like a preview of what’s coming, as private clubs continue their slow march eastward from Manhattan and Palm Beach. Some of these changes are genuinely good. Swifty’s at The Hedges gave the historic inn new life under Sarah Wetenhall’s renovation. But what frustrates locals and old-timers most isn’t necessarily that new places open. It’s what they replace.

Which brings us to what RPS is talking about today: Jean’s taking over Old Stove Pub. As investor decks detailing the renovation plans and operational vision for this summer continue making the rounds, the takeover is beginning to leave even more to be desired than many locals first thought — and plenty of people were already unhappy about the sale of Old Stove Pub to begin with.

We’ll get into the latest details surrounding the renovation, operations, and what’s planned for the property after the jump.

Also on the agenda: a look at Babe’s Diner’s first summer weekend in Sag Harbor, Eugen Remm is hiring for a new spot, the price of Knicks play-off tickets, a few new must-follow Substacks, the Nikki Beach settlement, a JPMorgan lawsuit over a Super Bowl platter, which three U.S. private schools are leading in AI compared to all other private schools and more…

Everyone I know is either building something or being shaken down to fund someone else’s something. My entire social circle has become a Venn diagram of “founder” and “angel investor,” with a very small circle in the middle labeled “Carson, investing in her wardrobe.” The upside of all of this? I have access to pretty much every investor deck in circulation. Some are interesting but most are just a crime against PowerPoint.

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Ready for a banger of a newsletter while you pretend to disconnect from the back of a center-console boat, argue about whether to take the helicopter, and spend $160 on a rosé you could have bought for $12 at home? Kidding!

In today’a letter, JP Morgan unveils their summer reading list, a police drone tracks a suspect after a $21k heist at a Hamptons Ralph Lauren store over the holiday weekend, an on-the-ground report from a Spencer Pratt event in Beverly Hills, Eli Zabar’s UES shops are repeatedly being targeted by crooks, some last minute Hamptons rental deals, and more.

And hello to all my new subscribers who found RPS via Lindsay Lohan's Instagram story — welcome, you're in the right place. Having her repost my exclusive on Scott's coming stateside was a treat, and apparently a lot of you (as in hundreds) agreed. In that same spirit of things you didn't know you needed to know, RPS has an extensive update on Maison Estelle — what's actually happening with the 81st Street location, and word of plans for something that looks a lot like Estelle Manor, but on this side of the Atlantic.

This week, Community Board 8 rejected the British hospitality group Estelle’s liquor-license proposal for its planned Upper East Side club in its current form, voting 29-13 (with one abstention) after the project’s rooftop terrace became the major sticking point with neighbors. Fear not: The proposal can still move forward before the New York State Liquor Authority, but the message from locals was pretty clear: the problem is the roof, not Estelle itself. The members club is welcome at 81st street, but only if it ditches it plans entirely for the rooftop.

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I also wanted to share some of the reader reactions to RPS breaking the news last week that Scott's — the London seafood institution on Mount Street in Mayfair, a favorite of Ian Fleming — will be coming to New York as part of Annabel's members club. (If you didn’t read the original letter on this, revisit it here). This was big news for a lot of you (and for me!) and I am still fielding emails and DMs about it.

I’m very basic but one of my favorite places on earth. I have a group chat blowing up with the news I just sent. - Dave T.

I’m worried this will be the end of Scott’s magic. It’s so British, I’m not sure it can work anywhere but London. - Alita J.

My favorite restaurant in London. The best news I’ve heard all month. - Jody M.

The Anabel’s team is good at world-building. I think they’ll be able to imitate the British magic of Scott’s in New York, and anything British is hot right now. - Anonymous

Dover sole and seafood platters for all! And don’t forget that cheddar souffle! - Jeff G.

Scott’s has bags of style - Anonymous

I wish Scott’s would just stay in London where it belongs. They’re not going to become a chain are they? - Kristin M.

For those of you who could give a damn about members clubs, there's plenty of other stuff today too: James Murdoch's Succession-coded Vox Media takeover, Cannes' increasingly bleak post-Hollywood mood, the $150 Popeyes chicken tenders tower scandal at Surf Lodge, Princeton reunions, the miniature dachshund working as Pet Guest Experience Director at The Fifth Avenue Hotel and more…

All for paid subscribers below.

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I reported on the dog nanny trend for The Times UK, with my story coming out yesterday (“A New Must-Have for the Super-Rich: A Live-In Dog Nanny”). The agency that inspired it — Household Staffing, out of Philadelphia — found its way into my social feed via a series of viral Instagram posts.

For today’s letter, I spoke with their Director of Operations, Olivia Fountain, who started as a nanny at 18, ran her own agency, and has worked every side of the industry. She told me that beginner nannies are now commanding rates that top nannies couldn't get a few years ago, that families are requesting D1 athletes to play tennis with their kids, and that the nanny poaching happening on the Upper East Side makes dog nanny poaching look like nothing. Some of the jobs we talked about I didn’t even know existed (who knew wardrobe managers were a thing?). Her very enlightening conversation with RPS after the jump.

Also in today’s letter: the possible end of the Gazebo mudslide on Nantucket, backlash over salaries at Manhattan’s elite private schools, the startup-style high school promising students $1 million businesses by graduation, what everyone is saying about the Gucci show, East Hampton’s six-month permit backlog and more…

A little housekeeping: I upgraded a handful of free subscribers. No rhyme or reason — just people I noticed opening every single letter. Loyalty pays off. It's temporary, but enjoy it. And if you’re happy, feel free to convert to paid.

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But what’s even better than having a secret is being allowed to share one. The first time I heard what restaurant was going into the new Annabel’s, I was sworn to secrecy. I was specifically told not to talk about it. So I kept my mouth shut, even when the restaurant kept coming up around me. And it happened a lot, because every well-traveled person I know seems to have a story about this place.

It wasn’t until this week, when a second person independently confirmed it to me, that I was finally given permission to talk about it publicly. Which is very exciting, since I’ll be the very first one to bring you this news. And this could be one of the most anticipated hospitality openings in New York.

And we don’t get sick of members club news here at RPS, do we? No, never! But just in case, I do have plenty of other things for you too: watch-flippers galore waiting for the Audemars Piguet x Swatch collab, the lore of a secret celebrity dessert at The Grill (and what it has to do with Sabrina Carpenter in Dior), a production company announcement out of Cannes, and more.

So without further ado…

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In West Hollywood, Laurel Supply just opened directly across the street from Erewhon — and it’s coming for its customers. In New York, Jessica Gillin, the stylist behind some of the most talked-about cuts in the city, has left Jenna Perry to open Franklin’s NYC in Tribeca, which opened its doors today.

If that’s not enough (who are you?!), there’s more: details on Apogee golf club from my Elle Decor story, which dropped yesterday; news on a new development planned for Wellington; a tag sale at Club Cumming in New York; and a dispatch from a reader at the Venice Biennale.

Dive in. See you Wednesday.

Jessica Gillin, the Cut Specialist Behind Jenna Perry Hair, Has Opened Her Own Salon

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RSVP required.

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Today’s letter is one of my favorites in a while — and after a week like this one, we all deserve it. I have never been to the Milken Conference, but when a friend with a very big job and a reason to be there offered to report back with their observations for RPS, I immediately said yes. My one request was to please, please make it legible to those of us who do not work in business and have never attended what is essentially Davos for people who don’t like snow. The last thing I wanted was a field report packed with policy jargon that I’d spend a day translating. It has been a long time since I got my business degree, and an even longer time since I worked anywhere near a balance sheet.

Luckily, our on-the-ground correspondent delivered a report that includes a little bit of everything: a party at a house Rihanna once owned, a Pitbull concert, Brunello Cucinelli pullovers, the temperature on China, Jensen Huang, private aviation gossip, Larry Fink, crypto slander, and somehow, a Taylor Swift mention. I am thoroughly impressed.

For those of you who think the Milken Conference sounds like a total snoozefest, don’t worry — the rest of RPS is your smelling salts. There’s also some exclusive news from a Community Board Meeting this week (backed up by a friend of mine) about what we know about a British members' club heading across the pond to the Upper East Side on 81st street (which hasn’t been reported in any major outlets or newsletters yet), Met Gala after-party coverage you haven’t seen anywhere else, drama at the Venice Biennale, details from the Central Park Hat Luncheon, a new maestro at the New York Philharmonic and more…

Dispatches from the Milken Conference: Notes from the Lanyard Class

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The flashpoints this year are hard to keep up with. People are particularly mad Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are the lead sponsors, reportedly paying at least $10 million to underwrite the evening, and for the first time in the gala’s history, it is an individual, not a fashion house, whose name is on the invitation. This year it’s a billionaire. (As Chrissy Rutherford pointed out online, why wasn’t everyone as mad with Amazon sponsoring the CFDA Awards the last four years?).

But you probably know all of this, as it has been rehashed endlessly for the past week, right? And it’s going to be even more so everywhere today (and tomorrow…and the next day…). So you don’t need me to tell you. A few things worth knowing anyway, since everyone loves trivia:

Wintour bans specific foods from the dinner — anything that could get stuck in teeth (parsley), anything messy (bruschetta), heavy garlic and onions for bad breath, or anything that could stain a dress. Maybe this is good protocol to apply to all dinner parties. Or at least ones I attend. I am, historically, a menace to my own outfit.

Another thing to consider about how the Met has grown: In 1948, when the Gala began, tickets were $50 — the inflation-adjusted equivalent of roughly $674 today. This year they are $100,000 each. (The equivalent of that in 1948? $1,376. I think our math is a little off here, folks).

As for today’s RPS, I do have a little exclusive Met Ball news for you (which has to do with the Mark Hotel’s security), but for those of you that are sick of hearing about it, don’t worry, there are plenty of other things for you too. Everything from fancy hats to genital wellness, a break-in at the Breakers and Lauren Santo Domingo’s tower of cocktail wieners. Don’t ever say I don’t keep things interesting.

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I was chatting with her about my upcoming travel schedule recently when she mentioned that she had to make a last-minute trip to Europe in May (maybe Switzerland?) and that I should consider coming along. The reason, she explained, was that she needed to renew her dog’s European passport. I laughed, because a dog having any passport, let alone a European one, seemed genuinely absurd to me. But she was serious. Her longtime partner is British, they travel constantly, and the passport (her dog’s, to be clear) was not a bit. It was a real document, issued by a real European vet — and one that, as of April 22nd, is no longer valid for anyone who doesn't actually live in Europe.

A new ruling effectively closed the door on non-EU residents holding one, which means the pilgrimage back to a European vet to renew her dog’s rabies vaccination (the passport itself never expires, but the vaccination inside it does, every one to three years depending on the vaccine) is no longer the necessary errand it once was. The passport is now, technically, void.

So what does a dog who has logged more European air miles than most people do with that information? Well, nothing. Dogs don’t read legislation. (Duh!) But RPS does have some helpful information for what owners can do. Traveling to Europe frequently, or for any real stretch of time, has never been particularly simple for dog owners — but there are still routes through, for those unwilling to leave the furriest members of their household behind. Getting into the U.K. from the U.S., meanwhile, is its own category of logistical theater, which has been made even more complicated since Brexit.

We’re getting into both of these today — along with what the Hamptons IT car will be this summer, an event for the Alpha School last night, a messy lawsuit involving JPMorgan, Rich Face vs real rich, and a brand buy-up in the North Fork.

And a reminder that tomorrow EOD is the deadline to become a paid subscriber — for yourself or a guest — for those who'd like to be added to the invite list for next month's RPS event. DM me or email me at Carson@readrps.com with any questions.

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