The Best Thing in Life | The American Spectator

I am now going to tell you something helpful. I have lived now for almost 81 years. For the last 40 years or so, my life has been guided by some words of Samuel Johnson. Among many other brilliant aperçus, he said that a good tavern was the best thing in life. For my time in Los Angeles, I had two main taverns: Morton’s on Melrose, close to me in Beverly Hills. It was run by Pam Morton and run beautifully. I saw many friends there every time I went in. My wife and I were treated like family. Then, it closed, by order of its owner, Peter Morton, the best restaurateur in history. He also founded the Hard Rock Cafes, in which I was privileged to invest.

The other was Mister Chow, a glorious place on Camden, where I was also treated well by Mister Chow himself. It’s still open and it’s great, but it’s too noisy some nights.

For the last five years, though, I have gone every day when I am well to the Cabana Cafe. It’s an open-air paradise next to the swimming pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel. It’s incredibly friendly and not at all expensive by 2025 standards.

I just feel like I am in heaven when I walk in. PLEASE try it before you die. I especially love the milkshakes.

My glorious father, Herbert Stein, in his last months on earth, said that his greatest regret in life was that he had not had more chocolate milkshakes. I am not going to make that mistake.

Dick Cheney, RIP

I awakened this morning to see that Dick Cheney had passed away. He was not a close friend, but I knew him on a first-name basis since 1970, when he and I worked together at the Office of Economic Opportunity, LBJ’s War on Poverty, a far better crusade than the evil Bolshevik “War on Drugs” which turned out to be a war on us old people. We were together in the Ford White House as well, when he worked under Donald Rumsfeld, a questionable person at best. I never understood why Dick rose so high and so fast, except that he made friends with ambitious, successful people.

Anyway, he was always friendly to me when I saw him in D.C., after I had become a “movie star.” I wish his soul well, although he made many mistakes that cost good men and women their lives for no purpose.

By the way, I am writing this after I talked to the most astute man I know here in LA — Judah Friedman. Judah had guarded hope about the New York mayoral election, and Judah is almost never wrong. Let us pray.

READ MORE from Ben Stein:

Liquidity Is Essential to Life

The Almighty Power

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