Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
Ask the Librarians archive
About Emdashes | Email us
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Not exactly Irvin Type—not Irvin Type at all—but Irvin-related: artist Daniel Adel’s amphibian version of the original (tongue-in-cheek, etc.) E.T. Adel has actually contributed to The New Yorker, so as you can see, it’s a meta-Quaker Oats, post-postmodern Circle Game moment for me. Thanks to the multitalented Newyorkette (who reviews a giant history of Vogue in the new issue of PRINT) for the tip!
And now for the fairness and balance for which Emdashes is known: Here’s someone’s story about cranky readers of the magazine. I’d be cranky too if someone did to me what this person claims to have done to someone’s blissful magazine-reading experience, and if I ever catch them doing it, I’ll show them what real crankiness looks like!
For the record, I don’t believe for a second that any New Yorker readers are shoving people on the subway. I think they’re absorbed and distracted, dulling the pain of their stifling routine with mesmerizing (if horrifying) pieces about our impending water catastrophe; also funny cartoons. You should try it sometime, haughty nose-thumber of the “intelligentsia.” It really helps!
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.
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive contributors. Click here to email 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
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
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- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
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Comments
Ahem. I personally have shoved many people on the subway. And whacked them with my The New Yorker magazine, right on the snout, and shouted, “Bad dog!” at them.
(just kidding! ha ha!)
I think most TNY readers are the shove-ees, actually, because they’re so engrossed. But I have a theory: perhaps the ones that shove have realized they’re about to miss their stop, and are trying to run for the door? Most shovers are actually just innocent klutzes.