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Dept. of Fresh Faces: The Intern Speaketh
Filed under: The Catbird Seat: Friends & Guests Tagged: Canada, E.B. White, Hendrik Hertzberg, John Bucher, New Yorker Comment
You may remember that a little while back, I sought an intern. John Bucher, the one I found—or vice versa—is splendid, he already writes intelligently about The New Yorker, and he's Canadian, too. There will be a logo for such posts, by the way, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Rome.com. (There is now; thanks, Pretty!) Read on.
Hello from Vancouver—John the Intern here. I’m the journalism student from the University of British Columbia who's won the right to toil in the Emdashes archives for the summer. It's a step up; the bulk of my year went into learning the unhappy art of newswriting, and also something called "multiplatform" journalism—technical training for a mixed-up future in TV, print, and online. Anyway, I’m supposed to return to school in September, but, with a few good bounces, this interstitial summer will run deep into my forties.
My relationship with The New Yorker began a decade ago, when I was twenty, with a raft of back issues borrowed from my Aunt Susan and consumed in a basement in Esquimalt, B.C. I got a subscription for my next birthday, and I've been a steady reader since. The magazine, while always a reason to look forward to the mail, became an intellectual lifeline during my three years as an editor in Taiwan, where my only contact with proper English was Starbucks menus and The Taipei Times.
New Yorker Comment, my blog about the magazine, began as a class assignment in January of this year. We were supposed to write about a "beat," and so, having promiscuous interests, I chose one with no practical limits. The site has done okay—several thousand people seem to have read it—although I just made the dispiriting discovery that 60 percent of my visitors leave after ten or so seconds. Perhaps I’ll pick up a bit of snap by osmosis here at Emdashes.
For cadence and pitch I like Hendrik Hertzberg, and E. B. White’s quietly moral “An Approach to Style” is the neatest summary of my writerly aspirations. The next step for me is getting a job and paying down my student debt, and I’m on the lookout for prospects, at home and elsewhere.
You'll hear from me again, and in the meantime, if you see anything particularly inspiring or functioning especially well on Emdashes, you may give me all the credit. [I wrote that last bit. Welcome, John! We're so glad to have you. —Ed.]
Who we?
Emdashes, founded December 2004 by Emily Gordon, is a place where keen
and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can
find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas
within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages.
Learn more about us and our contributors.
We 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)
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 our hearts.
Primary sources
The New Yorker
Events listed by the magazine
Web resources: New Yorker writers and artists
Books, Organizations, &c.
Founded by Emily Gordon, 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
- Mick Stevens: I Really Should Be Drawing
- Resistance Is Fertile
- The essential Jane Grant
- Newyorkette
- Matthew Diffee's HuffPo blog
- Sasha Frere-Jones
- The New York Public Library records
- Map: Caption Contest Winners
- New Yorker haiku
- Between the Squibs
- New Yorker database
- Technorati: New Yorker
- Wikipedia: The New Yorker
- The New Orcer
- Access My Library
- New Yorker Comment
- Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
- Paul Noth's Pale Force
- The New Yorker Magazine in the 1930s
- Link to suggest? Email it!
- I Hate the New Yorker
- Blog About Town
- Ben Yagoda's homepage
- Modern Spectator
- New Yorker Anti-Caption Contest
- Silence of the City
- Cartoonist Michael Maslin's homepage
- Chiasmus in The New Yorker
Comments
A new intern who's Canadian to boot!!! From one Canadian to another, let me officially say Welcome!
Interns are wonderful—(note use of em dash) pep! verve! pizazz! fresh faces and ideas! energy! I see already that John is the Archetypal Intern.
Also, Canadians seem so sensible. What a combo!
Welcome, John!
Welcome, John! Glad to have you aboard!
I think three people officially makes us a "media empire."
Welcome, Johnny! (I can't think of anything clever or snappy to say, since I'm so overwhelmed without an intern here myself! I could use either an intern, or a cook. One or the other would let me get some work done!) Lucky Emdashes! You'll be a boon to her!
Thanks, guys—happy to be here!
Ah-ha! I see you've scooped up one of my most favorite people. John's work always sparks a twinkle in my eyes. I love him—and I'm sure your readers will too. Congratulations, Emdashes—you've just scored one of B.C.'s finest. Enjoy!
By the way, if anyone wants to score some of B.C.'s finest, my friend knows a guy.
Nice work, JJB. You're on your way!
Welcome, JJB! "Letters from Vancouver" would be most welcome!
Hmmm, something like Our Not-Too-Far-Flung Correspondents? I like it!
Welcome, John!
And hi, Emily!
Hey Bucher,
You'd have more people reading your blog if you'd actually told us about it.
Sheesh!
He's already living up to his stellar reputation. Keep him well fortified with snacks and commendations!