From the Daily Princetonian, a report on David Remnick’s recent talk:

Remnick, a Pulitzer Prize winner, also reflected on his time at the University and discussed topics ranging from the state of American and Russian affairs to managing The New Yorker. During the event, formatted as an hour-long discussion with English professor Michael Wood, Remnick answered questions about his experiences as a University student and his path to The New Yorker. Continued.

Among the good tidbits: Michael Bloomberg claims he’s submitted six captions to the caption contest. As Emdashes readers know from reading our Q. & A.s with the winners, the mayor needs to work a little harder!

Also, Remnick again invokes—with some wariness—a hypothetical, parallel existence as a fiction writer. The first instance I was thinking of was in an old interview with Orville Schell at Berkeley; the page is now broken, but you can read the illuminating transcript at the trusty Wayback Machine. In the Berkeley interview, there’s an exchange so great that, as I read it, I wrote it down as a motto:

Schell: Have you ever written any fiction?
Remnick: Not that I liked.
Schell: But you’ve written some?
Remnick: Yes, not that’s any good. Honestly. But you know life is short, but not five seconds. So we’ll see.

Sounds like there’s a novel possibility in there somewhere, or perhaps some modern-Chekhovian short stories. We’ll be receptive.