Here are this week's contents. Links to come later—if you're in Manhattan and you don't have a Ziggy doom cloud over your head, you'll see these very articles on the printed page in no time! I like the look of this one—oh, I see, it's the travel issue. Good timing! I'm about to travel a long way myself and I'll need it for the plane. What already oodles my noodle:

Tad Friend (twice!), David Sedaris (speak of the devil), Lawrence Osborne, Ian Parker on Sebastiao Salgado (I worked on a book of his photos, and he is quite amazing; hey, there's an online-only slide show!), John McPhee, the "Are We There Yet?" quartet (includes one of the Jonathan Mafia, but you have to look to see which), Steven Shapin, Alex Ross, David Denby on Fever Pitch (which I saw and was tickled by last night), Seamus Heaney. In cartoons, another Roz Chast "Back Page"! Can't wait to get my hands on these: Gahan Wilson, Charles Barsotti, Bruce Eric Kaplan, and Edward Koren. As Rufus Wainwright would say, my phone's on vibrate for you.

JOURNEYS
Goings on About Town
Talk of the Town

COMMENT: WASTED ENERGY
Elizabeth Kolbert on the fight over drilling in Alaska.

DEPT. OF MERGERS: WINNERS
Rebecca Mead reports from Mr. and Mrs. Jack Welch’s book party, at the Four Seasons.

DEPT. OF NOISEMAKING: THE ANGRY INVESTOR
Ben McGrath on Daniel Loeb and what complaint letters will get you.

LEGACIES: THE NUT LADY RETURNS
Tad Friend on a showdown in the Nutmeg State.

THE FINANCIAL PAGE: IN YUAN WE TRUST
James Surowiecki on where America’s currency is headed.

OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS: Tad Friend
The Parachute Artist: How Lonely Planet changed travel.

REFLECTIONS: David Sedaris
Keeping Up: Why does he always lose me?

THE SPORTING SCENE: Nick Paumgarten
Dangerous Game: The hazardous allure of backcountry skiing.

LETTER FROM NEW GUINEA: Lawrence Osborne
Strangers in the Forest: A guided tour to an isolated tribe.

PROFILES: Ian Parker
A Cold Light: Sebastiao Salgado sails to Antarctica.

ANNALS OF TRANSPORT: John McPhee
Out in the Sort: UPS and the art of moving everything.

FICTION: Ludmila Ulitskaya, “The Orlov-Sokolovs”

ARE WE THERE YET?
Nicole Krauss—My Summer in Poland
Jonathan Franzen—Countdown
Jane Smiley—Cold Front
Mary Gordon—Pilgrimage

THE CRITICS/BOOKS
Joan Acocella—Sybille Bedford’s travels.
Steven Shapin—Doping and sports.
Briefly Noted

THE THEATRE: Hilton Als
Jane Alexander plays Djuna Barnes.

MUSICAL EVENTS: Alex Ross
Harry Partch’s “Oedipus.”

THE CURRENT CINEMA: David Denby
“Kontroll,” “Fever Pitch.”

POEMS
Seamus Heaney—“In Iowa”
Franz Wright—“Four Poems of Youth”
Dana Goodyear—“The Above-the-Sea World of Jacques Cousteau”

THE BACK PAGE: Roz Chast, “Travelogue”

COVER: Bruce McCall, “Joys of Travel”

DRAWINGS: Lee Lorenz, Frank Cotham, David Sipress, Robert Weber, Alex Gregory, Barbara Smaller, Leo Cullum, Jack Ziegler, Mike Twohy, Carolita Johnson, Eric Lewis, Drew Dernavich, William Hamilton, Danny Shanahan, Victoria Roberts, Gahan Wilson, P. C. Vey, Charles Barsotti, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Edward Koren, Robert Mankoff, Jason Patterson, Matthew Diffee

SPOTS: Joost Swarte

Categories: NYer, Issue