Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
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(5.09.05 issue) What happens when you call the phone number in this week's Shouts & Murmurs?
Filed under: Hit Parade Tagged: Patricia Marx, Shouts & Murmurs
The number, in Patricia Marx's clever Audio Tour, is (212) 399-4838, an unusually authentic-sounding number to give out. Would there be an elaborate fiction on the other side, or even the weaselly Todd Niesle himself? Though I didn't try at 3 a.m., as the vengeful Debby suggests, I did call. I got this message:
"Thank you for calling Mutual of America. Our office has relocated. Our new telephone number is: (212) 224-1600. Thank you for calling Mutual of America."
Over at Mutual of America, they haven't been getting any curious calls (and don't remember speaking to anyone at the magazine). They do get The New Yorker there in the office, but nobody'd seen the story that communications director Marilyn Graves knew of. "That number was from our old location," she said. How long ago did they move? "Oh, we've been here in this building [on Park Avenue] for ten years." They certainly cover their bases! The old location: 666 Fifth Ave. Todd, is there something else we didn't know about you?
About us
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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