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What's in This Week's New Yorker: 08.31.09
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Alex Ross, Anthony Lane, Burkhard Bilger, Elif Batuman, Elizabeth Kolbert, James Surowiecki, James Wood, Laura Secor, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Nick Paumgarten, Paul Simms, Steven Brill
Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine's press release:
In "The Rubber Room," Steven Brill goes inside a facility where New York City teachers who have been accused of misconduct, or, in some cases, incompetence are required to spend each day—for which they receive full pay—while they await arbitration. Under the terms of the city's contract with the teachers' union, the United Federation of Teachers, teachers with more than three years' seniority are guaranteed a job for life and cannot be fired unless they are "charged with an offense and lose in the arduous arbitration hearing," Brill writes. Teachers can sit idle in these facilities, commonly referred to as "Rubber Rooms," for as many as five years.
In "Perfect Match," Burkhard Bilger profiles tennis's Bob and Mike Bryan, "the best doubles team of their generation," and examines the evolution of doubles tennis.
In "Useless Beauty," Nick Paumgarten visits Governors Island in New York Harbor and explores the battle over how to develop it now that it is back under New York's control.
In Comment, Laura Secor looks at the history of coerced confessions and show trials in Iran, and explains why such tactics are ineffectual today.
James Surowiecki asks if the public's resistance to Obama's health-care-reform plan is psychological.
Paul Simms sends a corporate memo about restructuring in one's personal life.
Elif Batuman chronicles the rise of comedy traffic schools.
Elizabeth Kolbert explores extreme experiments in low-impact living.
James Wood examines attempts to defend God from the new atheists.
Alex Ross notes a recent return to improvisation in bel-canto opera.
Anthony Lane reviews Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and The Baader Meinhof Complex.
There is a short story by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.
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.
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We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
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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
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