Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines

Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
Weekly: Pick of the Issue
Bimonthly: Ask the Librarians

Submit a question for the next column.

Frequently:
Headline Shooter
Seal Barks
Eustace Google
Looked Into

The Squib Report
X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch
Letters & Challenges
On the Spot
Eds. | Personal

A Reader Writes: Can It Be a Coincidence?

Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: copy editing, David Denby, magazines, Peter Schjeldahl

Ed O'Connell of Martha's Vineyard asks this provocative question:

I'm a New Yorker reader of limited tenure with a question that may expose an embarrassing degree of naivete and/or paranoia but, of course, I'm compelled to ask: is there an inside joke at the magazine about using the same unusual word in different articles throughout any one issue? For example, in the 1/29/07 issue, Schjeldahl on the Art World and Denby on Current Cinema both use the fairly unusual word "deracinated." I have noticed this in past issues from time to time with other unusual words and have wondered if this is the work of a playful editor or merely coincidence. Thanks in advance for any insight.

It goes without saying that no one on the magazine's staff would ever declare this to be true on the record, even if such twins were planned; after all, word repetitions are one of the things copy departments try to prevent. (In the brief and surreal, though existentially crucial, period in which I freelanced at Lucky, searching for "reps"—multiple instances of "ladylike" and "foxy," most likely—was one of my oddly enjoyable tasks.)

Still...things like this, bets and dares and japes, have been known to occur in the magazine world. Perhaps there will be an update. Wait and see.

Send letters to the editor to letters@emdashes.com. As always, nothing is published without permission, so rest easy, paranoiacs.

4 comments

Comments

"Paranoiacs"? I hope you're not referring to me!

carolitaFebruary 14, 2007

No indeed, C! If you only knew the kinds of skittish emails I get, you'd think I was Woodstein and Hersh rolled into one.

EmilyFebruary 14, 2007

I love this question.

zpFebruary 14, 2007

I think 'deracinated' might be French for 'root beer,' seriously.

JJBFebruary 15, 2007

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, it may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Thanks for waiting.)

Your name

Your email address

Your website address

Remember personal info?

Your comments

Who she?

I'm Emily Gordon, reachable at emily@emdashes.com.

I'm an editor at PRINT magazine in New York City. I've worked at The Nation, Newsday, PEN America, and Legal Affairs. I've written for the NY Times Book Review, Salon, The Washington Post, The Village Voice... continued

Affinities | Blurbs

I welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.

No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.

This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.

A few clips

Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)

More clips.

Tell me more

They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

Primary sources

The New Yorker
Events listed by the magazine
Web resources: New Yorker writers and artists
Books, Organizations, &c.

Written and edited by Emily Gordon (plus various guest contributors), designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

The Rossosphere