Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
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Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Postest With the Mostest: Organic Breakfast Links
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Bob Dylan, books, Carolita Johnson, chess, comics, George Saunders, Jesse Thorn, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Mike Lynch, New Yorker Festival, Paul Hoffman, podcasts, radio, Saul Steinberg, The New Yorker
Some weeks all one is capable of, blog-wise, as Jack Lemmon would say, is short, be-linked bursts. This is one of those weeks, my friend.
A beautiful design for a New Yorker party.
Goody! Jesse Thorn at The Sound of Young America—the eerily gifted young radio host who’s been taking WNYC by storm—has interviewed George Saunders again.
Marisa Acocella Marchetto interviewed. Have you read her book Cancer Vixen yet? It’s astonishingly powerful, and funny, too.
Who will save the Saul Steinberg boat mural? I repeat: who?
Some wonderful old-cartoon tidbits, courtesy of Mike Lynch.
If you’re still bobbing for Dylans after I’m Not There, dig Theme Time Radio Hour, the best show anywhere. Thanks, Bill, for this WaPo story about the sandpaper-smooth DJ with a nose for goofy trivia and a weakness for women’s names.
Is text-messaging the solution for administrations dealing with crises like the one at Virginia Tech? It might be.
Just because, the His Girl Friday screenplay.
“Interesting mention of TNY’s fiction,” writes Carolita, and she’s right.
Speaking of writers for the magazine, I reviewed Paul Hoffman’s new book about lives spent puzzling out heady and confounding strategies in chess games and in families (for Newsday); it’s called King’s Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World’s Most Dangerous Game.
About us
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker fan 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
- The Beautiful Sentence
- 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
I really enjoyed reading the Saul Steinberg story out of Texas. I hope the mural can be saved.
It reminds me of (possible) urban myth in the old New Yorker art department in the former offices on 44th (or 43rd if you like). I was told a couple of times that there are walls there covered in cartoons from contributors from the 1930s to 1980s. Has anyone else heard of this? Is there a room with Thurber, Arno, Addams originals drawn on the walls?
Framed and hanging in the current offices are a few Thurber drawings on slabs of plaster from the old offices. I was told the previous landlord claimed ownership but lost the argument. I don’t know if any more were left behind.
I have seen them! Too bad they couldn’t just transfer the wall intact.
John, how long has your D.C. discussion group been going on?