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

Hertzberg, Pollitt, Gill, Hodgman, &c.: Links to Live By

Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Bob Mankoff, books, Brendan Gill, feminism, gay rights, Hendrik Hertzberg, James Thurber, John Hodgman, Katha Pollitt, Lauren Collins, law, Marisha Pessl, Michael Gates Gill, politics, Sean Wilsey, Starbucks, TOTT

Here's a useful take on Hendrik Hertzberg's sound Comment about the Larry Craig debacle (debacle of misappropriated police resources and legislative energy, that is); if you've seen any good takes on Hertzberg's piece, please post them in the comments.

I just started reading How Starbucks Saved My Life, so I'll write about it when I'm done. For context, here's today's New York Times profile, with a photo slide show, of Michael Gates Gill, the self-sufficient and contented man, well-respected barista at a Starbucks store, son of Brendan Gill, and former ad executive, in approximately that order. As a rule, I don't like Starbucks that much, but I'm touched.

Christopher Hayes praises my friend Katha Pollitt's new book, Learning to Drive: "A few of the personal essays in this book appeared in the New Yorker, but there’s some wonderful new stuff as well, including an absolutely spot-on hilarious chapter about a Marxist study group she used to belong to. As always, Pollitt writes like a dream."

I'm reading it now, and I'm planning to buy it for half a dozen others. It should be required reading for every humanist, capitalist, true lover, skeptic, feminist, deep thinker, and humor appreciator this side of the exosphere. You'll remember the New Yorker essays "Webstalker" and "Learning to Drive"; they're in there, all right, and so are a whole bunch of other pieces you'll be delighted to discover.

Cartoon news: This blogger has some caption-contest suggestions; cartoon editor Bob Mankoff comments on a cartoon controversy.

A nice reflection on what makes good readings so good; the writer recalls readings by John Hodgman, Marisha Pessl, and Sean Wilsey, among others.

This piece about ideas of privacy includes this story: "In another well-known case, The New Yorker magazine was sued by a hermit whose privacy was shattered when a James Thurber story disclosed that many years before he had been a famous child prodigy."

Finally, remember the Talk of the Town by Lauren Collins about Barbara Hillary, the 75-year-old woman who wanted to be the first African-American woman to reach the North Pole? She did it!

0 comments

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 we?

Emdashes, founded December 2004, 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.

Affinities | Blurbs

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)

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.

Founded by Emily Gordon, edited by Martin Schneider, 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