Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.

Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
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Before it moved to The New Yorker:
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Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into

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X-Rea: Rea Irvin Type
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Premature Valentines

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: comics, David Remnick, design, HOW, Joan Didion, New York magazine, Rea Irvin, TV, typography

After my own heart I: Font & Order, derived from author Grace Dobush’s admiration for and preoccupation with the Law & Order typeface, Friz Quadrata. Thanks to HOW, my home magazine’s sister magazine, for the tip.

If you like Law & Order, by the way, you might just like David Remnick; if you like typography, you might have a Rea Irvin-like font spotting to send me. The world is full of things to uncover, then share with like-minded souls. About those un-like-minded souls—why are you thinking about those people anyway? What good has that ever done you?

After my own heart II: This Week in Milford. To understand, read a few days’ worth of The Comics Curmudgeon. Not that it’s possible to read only a few days of that site, which is far and away my favorite thing on the internet.

After my own heart III, possibly, if I knew what it was: this mysterious magazine writing blog. The mysterious creator has
ingeniously combined Joan Didion and the Gideon Bible, which seems like as good an idea as any.

Let those who say I have a narrow-niche subject take note! Later: Then there’s Behind the Approval Matrix, which decodes the New York magazine feature for the curious. I sometimes wish I got fewer references like that, actually, but I’m always tickled by it. (Thanks to the indispensable Manhattan User’s Guide for that one.)

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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.

Our favorite things | Compliments and press

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)