Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
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Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Faithful reader Tom Gally, who reads us, I mean me, from Yokohama, Japan, writes:
The new owner of a set of The New Yorker's DVD archive faces the problem of where to begin. The book of highlights that accompanies the DVD offers one point of entry, as do the software's various search and browse features.
I began in the late 1930s. By that point, the magazine had matured beyond its slapdash beginnings, but it still had a youthful lightness and irreverence that would be lost with the coming of the Second World War, the atomic age, and the Cold War.
For a taste, here is the first item under "Notes and Comment" in the issue of January 9, 1937:
"The fortnight has been a busy one. There were hasty conferences to make air travel safe for statisticians. There was a clash of pituitary experts, baring their teeth over a hormone. 'Alice in Wonderland' was discredited by a psychiatrist. Women were proved to be fertile for only a few hours each month, during which time they could be made to ring a bell. Sport reached a new pinnacle when an American Negro ran a foot race with a chestnut gelding. A lady in Princeton discovered osmium, thulium, and iridium in the sun. Skiing took its final Americanization vows when a snow train full of skiers was met in Intervale, N.H., by a brass band. And a scientist, taking the words right out of our mouth, pointed out that Man is about to follow in the footsteps of the lemmings, the little animals that run down to the sea and die."
I think (back to me now) that the weekly satirical email Harper's sends out is reaching for this very kind of tone and sprightly listmaking, which may not work as well for the dreariest of currrent events. Is this piece credited? I'll check later on. One of the best things about the archive is that at long last, we know who the heck wrote all those Talks. Here's Lillian Ross on the early days of Talks and that famous first-person plural.
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.
Want to know more about the people who contribute to Emdashes, and the secret meanings behind our column titles? All about us.
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Tell me more
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)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
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