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
Best of the 12.01.08 Issue: Banana-Fana Fo Fernanke
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: cartoons, economy, John Cassidy, Peter Mueller, recession
In the pragmatic, can-do spirit of the incoming Obama administration, Emdashes has made a collective decision to put aside “the failed policies of the past”…and revive the useful “Pick of the Issue” feature instead!
Our goal is utilitarian. Consider: You are being pursued by a highly funktastic lizard and thus cannot follow through on your oath to read with care every page of this week’s issue. You’ve only got about thirty minutes to dedicate to the issue. To which feature should you allot your circumscribed time?
This week, districts reporting so far (Jonathan Taylor and I) thought John Cassidy’s Reporter at Large story about Ben Bernanke and the reaction to our still-unfolding economic crisis, “Anatomy of a Meltdown” (here’s the link at the Digital Edition), took the cake. Jonathan found it “the most detailed thing I’ve read about what Bernanke was up to earlier.” The article also features an amusing/disturbing anecdote about Bush’s undue interest in socks (the footwear, not the Clinton cat). Jonathan also enjoyed Peter Mueller’s daft take on televised talent shows in his cartoon on page 68.
Emily notes that this feature has always benefited from the contributions of keen Emdashes readers, who are, after all, New Yorker subscribers who read large chunks of the issue every week. I heartily agree! If you have a strong positive reaction to any article in the current issue, by all means write us and tell us why! You might even make our weekly “Pick of the Issue” writeup. And, of course, if there’s something you didn’t like, feel free to tell us about that, too.
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
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Everything you tell or send us is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
Comments
I’m a little bit behind in my reading. Sometimes it takes an extra week for the magazine to reach me here on Baffin Island. (An email subscription is the obvious solution, but I worry that what I’d gain in delivery speed, I would lose in reading pleasure. I really enjoy holding the physical magazine in my hands, folding it, marking it, turning the corners down in it, and generally making it a reflection of my own quirky interests.) My POTI pick of this particular issue has nothing to do with either Ben Bernanke (ugh!) or V. S. Naipaul (double ugh!). I enjoyed the simpler stuff, e.g., the lovely Waterfront Greenway bike hike, and the visit to the Met to view Vaux’s oculi. The Met piece is the first I’ve read by Macy Halford. I was impressed. I look forward to reading more of Halford’s work in future issues.