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Best of the 02.02.09 Issue: Al Roosten and Army Cats
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Adrian Tomine, art, Booker T. Washington, Caroline Kennedy, covers, illustration, Kelefa Sanneh, Larissa MacFarquhar, Laura Secor, Mohammed Tabibian
Martin Schneider writes:
This issue had Adrian Tomine's cover wryly commenting on the region's tough winter. (I'd like to say that this cover took me a while to get, because I wasted precious seconds looking for the Obama connection.) Candidates include Larissa MacFarquhar on Caroline Kennedy, Laura Secor on Mohammed Tabibian, and Kelefa Sanneh on Booker T. Washington. You guessed it—this post is not yet complete!
Martin Schneider adds: Having now looked at the issue more carefully, I'm going to single out Nancy Franklin's evocative roundup of the cable news coverage of the inauguration. It was funny (any sentence referencing Chris Matthews) and the ending had a nice jolt of earned profundity. Brava!
About us
Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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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’m partial to TOTT pieces, especially ones that show an affectionate, but unsentimental, eye (and an ear) for the significant in the quirky. Nick Paumgarten writes great TOTT stories. Mark Singer was one of the best at it. (Where is he now?) This week’s issue of the magazine contains two standout TOTT pieces: Lizzie Widdicombe’s “Step On It,” and Ben McGrath’s “Third String Rummy.” Either one is worthy to be this week’s POTI. But if I had to choose, I’d pick Widdicombe’s story because it truly is, to quote one of the story's characters, “a fine Washington adventure.”