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
Bridezillation Nation: Interviews With Rebecca Mead
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: books, Carolita Johnson, cartoons, events, Henry Alford, John Donahue, Kelly Bare, movies, newyorker.com, NYPL, Rebecca Mead, Robert Benchley, TV
I’ll be at the New York Public Library tonight with the brilliant and beautiful Newyorkette to see Rebecca Mead’s conversation with Henry Alford about her new book, One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. The talk’s sold out, I’m afraid, but the book isn’t. Read the top Amazon comment (“Inbel”); it’s pretty smart. Hey, Penguin, who did the jacket design? I like it.
Here’s an interview with Mead from the Wichita Eagle, or the San Antonio Express-News, or apparently both. A review I wrote for Newsday in 1999 turned up in the Moscow Times just the other day; perhaps all this repurposing is getting out of hand. Kelly Bare interviewed Mead (who says, “There is a culture of weddings that is conspiring to make bridezillas of us all if it possibly could”) for newyorker.com.
Other event news: Cartoonist John Donohue is giving a Mediabistro seminar on gag cartoons (those are the kind you see in The New Yorker (where he’s published) on June 12, reports Lusty Lady, a.k.a. Rachel Kramer Bussel.
And because I have very spotty television and no cable, I’m thrilled to see that Turner Classics is going to put a bunch of old movies online. Can the Benchley oevre be far behind?
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to know more about the writers and artists and what our column titles mean? We live to serve!
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
We host occasional book giveaways. Publishers, please email us for our postal address.
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
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- 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)
- Follow us on Twitter
- Befriend us on Facebook
- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
No fear
Everything you tell or send us is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
Comments
I sort of hope that Larry Doyle’s “Share Our Joy” is a short, pithy summary - in spirit if not in letter - of Mead’s work. Because I just can’t see myself reading a whole book on the topic.
You’re right, that book cover is excellent.
I’m planning to read the book, actually—Mead and Alford were both very witty and full of horrific facts about the grand scams of the wedding industry. Afterward, Carolita and I sneaked into the swanky Nick Denton party on the generous arm of Megnut, and we all enjoyed some wedding cake. It was better than most wedding cake I’ve tasted, and the event was more fun than many weddings.