Yep! Just got the news via the magazine's Twitter. Here's the link. It opens:

Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching--that's the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has--at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity--undermined the country and its ideals? Read on.

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We've already noted the commendable choice of Alex Ross as one of this year's MacArthur Fellows; Chimamanda Adichie is also a winner, and I'm so glad. Here's the MacArthur website's description of a third accomplished and deserving recipient, Regina Benjamin:

Regina Benjamin is a rural family physician forging an inspiring model of compassionate and effective medical care in one of the most underserved regions of the United States. In 1990, she founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic to serve the Gulf Coast fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a village of approximately 2,500 residents devastated twice in the past decade by Hurricanes Georges, in 1998, and Katrina, in 2005. Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites. She has established a family practice that allows her to treat all incoming patients, many of whom are uninsured, and frequently travels by pickup truck to care for the most isolated and immobile in her region.

This immediately brought to mind "Children of the Bayou," Katherine Boo's outstanding 2006 piece about Louisiana nurses who travel to help young mothers learn to care for their babies. I find myself recommending it every few months. Boo has a satisfyingly long interview with Matt Dellinger on the New Yorker website; read it, and find the piece. It'll slay you.

Speaking of noble professions, I was moved to tears by a comment from a social worker about how Suzanne Vega's song "Luka" helped child advocates do their jobs by raising awareness about abuse and taking a little of the fear out of reporting it. The comment is on Vega's absolutely terrific essay for the New York Times about writing the song and listeners' many (and sometimes surprising) reactions. I was also struck by Vega's description of what having a hit song feels like: "'Hit' is a good name for it -- a feeling of intense communication with a huge amount of people at the same time. As with a baseball and a bat, a cracking, quick connection. As with drugs, a sudden alteration (continued)

Today's Daily Heller, the blog/e-blast by PRINT contributing editor and lead greyhound Steven Heller, addresses this week's New Yorker cover (by Barry Blitt), which has been stirring up a little controversy. Why take things to such extremes? There's a reason, as Steve writes:

This week's New Yorker cover [pictured] by Barry Blitt is just that: A satirical commentary on all the slanderous rumors being dumped on Sen. Barack Obama.

Titled "The Politics of Fear," the cover trenchantly attacks "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," according to a press release about the current issue.

But the Obama campaign (as well as that of Republican rival John McCain) slammed the cover as offensive[...]
...
In satire, however, context is everything--a delicate balance, to be sure. It must be pitch perfect, but not everyone need agree on whether it succeeds. Nonetheless, as a cover of The New Yorker, a magazine known for many covers, cartoons, and articles that "expose and discredit vice or folly," it's difficult to see this as anything other than what it is. And like the covers below, satire is designed to make readers question social, political, and cultural assumptions.

See the rest of Steve's post for a handful of good examples from New Yorkers past. It was ever thus, or, as Carly Simon once sang, it's coming around again. Election season is bound to produce a few more covers that jangle the carefully calibrated image making of both parties. Some may even twit the voters. We'll live.

As for this the danger that a satirical image will instantaneously vaporize all life as we know it, not to mention the chances of our guy taking the White House, I'll quote David Remnick out of context (he was talking with Folio, back in May, about the Democratic race): "The edifying parts of it I'm enjoying. The nonsense, the bullshit, the got-you things that mean nothing, are exhausting and meaningless, obviously." Breathe: November's still a few months away, and it's going to be a bumpy ride. (continued)

This summer, three interns--Sarah Arkebauer, Taylor House, and Adam Shoemaker (whose smarts and first initials have led me to think of them, collectively, as S.A.T.)--will be contributing to Emdashes in many ways, some of which you'll see as soon as this Friday. I'm delighted and honored to welcome them to the project. Without further ado, I'll let them introduce themselves. On Friday, we'll publish their first reports. They'll be involved all summer long, and it's going to be wonderful getting to know them. Note two themes so far: cartoons and the law.

Sarah Arkebauer: I'm a student at the University of Pennsylvania, from Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm tentatively majoring in History, but might switch to English. I enjoy reading (both books and blogs), using retro slang, and StumbleUpon. I also play the violin.

I spent my childhood reading Roz Chast's New Yorker cartoons, which helped foster my love of the magazine. Now, I flip to the table of contents and look for any articles by David Sedaris or (perhaps in vain) Jonathan Franzen. I also really enjoy Haruki Murakami's fiction pieces, and I always check out the cinema reviews and John Updike's book reviews. I cut out the best articles, pictures, and cartoons and paste them into my commonplace book. Its size is becoming quite unwieldy. I still read all the cartoons.

Taylor House: I recently graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in creative writing. I'm currently in the process of moving to L.A. and becoming "hep" like those hoodlums (continued)

A brand-new New Yorker blog has debuted: It's called The Cartoon Lounge, and, further, "A guided tour inside the brains of New Yorker cartoonists." There's already a post from Drew Dernavich and a reply from Zach/Zachary Kanin. Drew writes:

What will we be posting here? Words, pictures, drawings, videos, interviews, and links to other Web sites. We'll have guest cartoonists, and we'll even have guest editors from time to time who will share their humorous ramblings, such as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

We'd also like to make this interactive, so we've got an e-mail address for your feedback which is absolutely free, if you can believe it. We'll also have contests and quizzes and other ways to elicit the best of what our viewers have to offer. It should be fun. Stay tuned.

Aside from the fact that it's high time for The New Yorker to start closing up and lowercasing "website," I'm very excited about this virtual lounge, and am looking forward to lounging in it. (continued)