Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
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Frequently:
Headline Shooter
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Looked Into
Martin Schneider writes:
S.L. Harrison at Editor & Publisher digs Robert Benchley’s “The Wayward Press.”
Software engineers find Atul Gawande’s checklist useful.
Malcolm Gladwell is one of the five most influential “business gurus” in America, per WSJ. (Related: Where are the women?)
Forbes appreciates Calvin “Bud” Trillin’s London election
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You’ll want to listen to the playlist that Daniel Radosh has helpfully assembled to accompany his list for Paper Cuts, Dwight Garner’s Times book blog, of “10 great Christian rock songs. Really. I know what you’re thinking.”
And speaking of saviors, there’s a lovely story in the Washington City Paper today about Julie Tate, ace news researcher for the Washington Post and former fact-checker at The New Yorker. I love behind-the-scenes pieces about magazines and newspapers, and this is a good one. Whatever is to become of the daily paper, reminding readers how essential classic reporting and researching skills are, and introducing them to the people who make those skills an art, will help the profession change forms more gracefully and (I hope) with more accuracy and honor.
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Here’s an elegant appreciation of the subway-map-themed entry in the recent Eustace Tilley retooling challenge. Benjamin Kabak writes: “Drawn by flickr user panutfla [Alberto Forero], the Tilley subway map evokes New York and the subways in all its glory. It is the quintessential image for The New Yorker, and while he magazine didn’t honor the underground veins of the city by placing this image on the cover, it is by far one of the most New York-centric images from The New Yorker I’ve seen in a long time.”
There’s no other way to say this—just obey me, please: Listen to Jonathan Lethem reading James Thurber’s short story “The Wood Duck.”
Also, were you wondering where my Pick of the Issue column went? Well, thanks! Me too! It’ll be back soon,
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Martin Schneider writes:
The “New Yorker Out Loud” podcast featured an intriguing revelation this week, and I thought I’d draw a little more attention to it.
In recent weeks Emily has followed the Eustace Tilley contest with understandably keen interest. It’s worth recalling that this manner of remix or appropriation was once less customary—it was a mere 14 years ago that the iconic annual Eustace Tilley cover was “messed with” by the great R. Crumb. Since 1993 we’ve seen all kinds of versions by Art Spiegelman (1997), Chris Ware (2005), Seth (2008), and many others.
I wasn’t living in the United States at the time, so it was difficult for me to gauge the uproar, but I’ve heard that
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Coincidental surname? Vesta Tilley, a famous and very popular (and happily married) English male impersonator, often played a dandy, singing and acting in theaters in New York.Think it’s all a saucy hoax? No indeed— (continued)
Chorus on the playbill in which Vesta Tilley sang this ‘dandy’ number:
“He has the latest thing in collars, the latest thing in ties,
The latest specimen of girly girls with the latest blue blue eyes,
He knows the latest bit of scandal, in fact he gave it birth,
But when it comes to getting up of mornings, he’s the latest chap on earth.”
I'm Emily Gordon, reachable at emily@emdashes.com.
I'm an editor at PRINT magazine in New York City. I've worked at The Nation, Newsday, PEN America, and Legal Affairs. I've written for the NY Times Book Review, Salon, The Washington Post, The Village Voice... continued
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.
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Written and edited by Emily Gordon (plus various guest contributors), designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.