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Best of the 01.26.09 Issue: Of Montreal and Drunken Mice
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Atul Gawande, Ben McGrath, Calvin Tomkins, Drew Friedman, Walton Ford
Martin Schneider writes:
This issue had Drew Friedman's cover combining the visages of Barack Obama and George Washington. Candidates include Atul Gawande on health care reform, Calvin Tompkins on Walton Ford, and Ben McGrath on pessimists. We'll be expanding this post in due course!
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Ben McGrath's "The Dystopians" cheered me up infinitely, making me think at least for a while that a lot of things worrying me won't matter at all soon. The piece gamely absorbs the all-embracing view of its subjects; at every corner, there's yet another novelistic image of the future as envisioned by James Howard Kunstler, like the aspiring hedge-fund managers who are "going to end up supervisors of rutabaga pickers."
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Proposal: a better-designed Metrocard (for A Brief Message)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: 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)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Micro-essay: on saving time through inspiration (for A Brief Message)
- 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)
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Comments
I just got off the phone with a Conde Nast (New Yorker) customer rep. She told me that they've been getting reports from subscribers (me included) who lost their Obama as Washington issue in the mail. Too bad, there's no replacement issue as they ran out of copies. They'll just extend the subscription for two weeks.
I liked the Ralph Steadman illustration; I really liked Gary Giddins’ Bill Frisell review; and I loved Ben McGrath’s “The Dystopians,” particularly the tour of Saratoga Springs in the company of the colorful (and somewhat cracked) James Howard Kunstler. Therefore, I award this week’s POTI to McGrath.