Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
Weekly: Pick of the Issue
Bimonthly: Ask the Librarians
Submit a question for the next column.
Frequently:
Headline Shooter
Seal Barks
Eustace Google
Looked Into
Links of More Than Routine Interest: Benchley, Gawanke, Gladwell, &c.
Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: Ann Telnaes, Atul Gawande, Barbara Smaller, books, Calvin Trillin, Carolita Johnson, cartoons, Julia Suits, Kim Warp, Liza Donnelly, Malcolm Gladwell, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, politics, Robert Benchley, Roz Chast, Signe Wilkinson, Victoria Roberts
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
(continued)
I Am Hanging in the Balance of the Reality of Man
Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: books, Daniel Radosh, fact-checking, Julie Tate, music, religion
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.
(continued)
Tilley on the MTA, Thurber's "Wood Duck," and Picks of the Issues
Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: Alberto Forero, art, audio, contests, Deborah Treisman, Eustace Tilley, fiction, illustration, James Thurber, Jonathan Lethem, MTA, newyorker.com, Rea Irvin
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,
(continued)
A Little More Background on Crumb's "Elvis Tilley"
Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: art, Art Spiegelman, audio, cartoons, Chris Ware, contests, covers, Eustace Tilley, Francoise Mouly, interviews, Matt Dellinger, newyorker.com, podcasts, R. Crumb, Seth, Tina Brown
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
(continued)
Eustace Tilley Inspired By Famous Male Impersonator?
Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: art, awards, contests, covers, Eustace Tilley, illustration, newyorker.com, Rea Irvin, theater
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.”
Who she?
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
I welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.
No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.
A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- 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 (for Print)
- 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)
Tell me more
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.
Primary sources
The New Yorker
Events listed by the magazine
Web resources: New Yorker writers and artists
Books, Organizations, &c.
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.
The Rossosphere
- Mick Stevens: I Really Should Be Drawing
- Resistance Is Fertile
- Newyorkette
- Matthew Diffee's HuffPo blog
- Sasha Frere-Jones
- The New York Public Library records
- Map: Caption Contest Winners
- New Yorker haiku
- Between the Squibs
- New Yorker database
- Technorati: New Yorker
- Wikipedia: The New Yorker
- The New Orcer
- Access My Library
- New Yorker Comment
- Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
- Paul Noth's Pale Force
- The New Yorker Magazine in the 1930s
- Link to suggest? Email it!
- I Hate the New Yorker
- Blog About Town
- Ben Yagoda's homepage
- Modern Spectator
- New Yorker Anti-Caption Contest
- Silence of the City
- Cartoonist Michael Maslin's homepage
- Chiasmus in The New Yorker