Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
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Headline Shooter
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What's in This Week's New Yorker: 10.19.09
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Adam Gopnik, Alex Ross, Calvin Tomkins, Daniel Zalewski, David Denby, Ellis Weiner, Hendrik Hertzberg, James Surowiecki, James Wood, Joan Acocella, John Lahr, Julian Barnes, Malcolm Gladwell, Rebecca Mead, William Finnegan
Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out today. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine's press release:
In "Offensive Play," Malcolm Gladwell wonders if the football fans who have recently been horrified by the quarterback Michael Vick's involvement in dogfighting are overlooking the more troubling aspects of their own sport. "Part of what makes dogfighting so repulsive is the understanding that violence and injury cannot be removed from the sport," Gladwell writes. Yet scientists have recently found evidence that the violence inherent in football can result in serious brain degeneration for players, long after their playing days are over.
In "The Secret Keeper," William Finnegan explores how Jules Kroll pioneered the corporate-intelligence industry, growing his business from a side job, investigating kickbacks in his father's printing business, to Kroll, Inc., "the world's preëminent detective agency, with three thousand employees, countless subcontractors, and offices in sixty cities in more than thirty-five countries."
In "The Gossip Mill," Rebecca Mead writes about Alloy Entertainment, the company behind Gossip Girl, The A-List, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and examines the process by which the company produces young-adult novels and spins them off into television shows and feature films.
In Comment, Hendrik Hertzberg on Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.
In The Financial Page, James Surowiecki examines why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's stance on climate-change legislation is bad for business.
Calvin Tomkins profiles the artist Urs Fischer.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Ellis Weiner imagines a downsized, digitized marketing plan for a forthcoming book.
Adam Gopnik looks back on Irving Penn's life and legacy.
Joan Acocella reads Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall.
Daniel Zalewski asks why the kids are in charge in today's picture books.
James Wood contemplates Lydia Davis's "very, very short stories."
John Lahr reviews Jude Law's turn as Hamlet.
Alex Ross notes the changes at the New York Philharmonic since Alan Gilbert's appointment as director.
David Denby reviews Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are and An Education.
There is a short story by Julian Barnes.
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
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