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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Caveat Emptor

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: advertising, cartoons, comics, history, Pollux, Roman Empire, The Wavy Rule

Click on the image for a detailed view! (continued)

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Beat That: James Wood Investigates David Foster Wallace at the 92nd St. Y

Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: David Foster Wallace, Frank Rich, James Wood, Jane Mayer, John Krasinski

Martin Schneider writes:

There is a fantastic event coming up at the 92nd Street Y this month—New Yorker literary critic James Wood does a "First Read" of David Foster Wallace's adventurous, uneven, maddening, delightful, never-boring short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. The event is on Monday, March 22, at 8:15pm, and has a hipster-friendly pricing policy: $19 admission, but only $10 for those 35 and younger (ID will be checked, people, so no funny business).

I had the great pleasure of seeing Wood speak at the 2008 New Yorker Festival, and his intelligence, gentleness, and patience were extraordinary. As a longtime fan of Wallace, I'm genuinely excited to hear what (continued)

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Eustace Tilley Squared -- If You Know Where to Look

Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: Adam Kempa, Ben Bass, Eustace Tilley, Francoise Mouly, Pollux

Martin Schneider writes:

As Pollux noted recently—and our friend Ben Bass posted too—there is a mind-blowing trick in the special four-Eustace 85th anniversary cover of last month. If you place the four covers in the proper two-by-two configuration, the outlines of the original classic Eustace cover can be discerned.

Now we have Adam Kempa's excellent slider application, which allows you to find it without spreading (multiple copies of) the issue all over your living room floor.

I am endlessly impressed by such cleverness! Françoise Mouly, hats off to you! (A top hat, of course.) (continued)

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Q: Where Is the U.S.'s Largest Abandoned Subway Tunnel?

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Bill McKibben, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Patricia Marx, subways

A: Jonathan Taylor writes:

I was pained by Patricia Marx's shopping column on Brooklyn in the March 8 issue, but she was correct to highlight the thrilling tours of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (also the subject of a 1982 Talk piece by Bill McKibben).

But that didn't prepare me for these pictures from a tour of Cincinnati's never-completed subway (via Lawyers, Guns & Money)—they're a must see. (continued)

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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Drummer Boy

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: cartoons, comics, drum, Fox, Pollux, The Wavy Rule

Click on the image for a detailed view! (continued)

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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Oscar the Grouch

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: cartoons, cinema, comics, Oscar, Oscars, Pollux, The Wavy Rule

Click on the image for a detailed view! (continued)

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Only in The New Yorker, Kids: The Tale of the Cunning Tailor

Filed under: Little Words Tagged: Amy Davidson, Close Read, Guantanamo, Rahm Emanuel

Jonathan Taylor writes:

At Close Read, Amy Davidson has the last word on the tall crop of Rahm Emanuel tales being told at various firesides:

Would the President's advisers really take pride in striking a deal to open a new Guantánamo? It's the sort of bargain a clever tailor in a fairy tale proposes to a bad elf.

(continued)

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Number of Appearances by The New Yorker in Harper's Index: 2

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Craig Seligman, Harper's Index, Luc Sante, Matthew Yglesias, Melvyn Bragg, Paul Krugman, Peter Hessler, radio, Spencer Ackerman, St. Clair McKelway, Will Self, WNYC

Jonathan Taylor writes:

Via the neatly searchable archive of the Harper's Index, they are:
(Jan. 1993) Percentage of New Yorker articles since Tina Brown became editor whose first sentence includes a person's name: 70
(July 1996) Chances that a cartoon in The New Yorker's Women's Issue was drawn by a man: 5 in 6
In the Times Book Review, Craig Seligman shares some (self-) revealing recollections of St. Clair McKelway, on the occasion of a new collection of McKelway's New Yorker reporting.
At the Edge of the American West, a historian's reflection on Paul Krugman's comments about studying economics versus studying history in the recent New Yorker Profile of him—with some spirited exchanges in the comments. Coincidentally, "Undercover Economist" Tim Harford's latest column in the Financial Times illustrates the persistence of long-ago history in contemporary outcomes.
Continuing on the history tangent, I was delighted to see Adam Cohen's Times Editorial Observer appreciation of the BBC Radio 4 program (and podcast) "In Our Time," in which Melvyn Bragg harries his academic guests into distilling great topics in civilization into their pithiest essence. (Will Self also wrote about "In Our Time" recently in the London Review of Books.) WNYC's Laura Walker wrote a letter to the Times defending U.S. radio against the suggestion that it doesn't host such erudite discussions. But Walker's counterexamples are telling: All the topics are basically contemporary; none represents the undiluted interest in the past that "In Our Time" exhibits.
I reviewed Country Driving, by Emdashes fave Peter Hessler, at Bookforum.com.

(continued)

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Sempé Fi: Winter Flapper

Filed under: Sempé Fi Tagged: 1920s, art, Art Deco, Brian Stauffer, covers, dog, fashion, flapper, Helen Dryden, Pollux, Vogue

Pollux writes:

She's knee-deep in a blanket of pure white snow. She's out for a walk with her dog. Her faithful dog cannot be seen except for its tail. In fact, the dog is clearing a pathway for her as they make their way through the wintry landscape.

This is the scene depicted in Brian Stauffer's cover for the March 1, 2010 issue of The New Yorker, called "Whiteout." (continued)

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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: John o' Gloats

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: cartoons, comics, Olympics, Pollux, The Wavy Rule

Click on the image for a detailed view! (continued)

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Who we?

Emdashes, founded in 2004 by Emily Gordon, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

Affinities | Blurbs

We 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.

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This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.

Some writing by Emily Gordon

Review: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (for Newsday)
Annotated slide show: a wet, festive 2009 Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for nycgo.com)
Proposal: A better-looking MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
Review: Does a redesign of The New Republic mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Interview: four online obsessives and visual cataloguers, Kate Bingaman, Nicholas Felton, Ellie Harrison, and John D. Freyer (for Print)
Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Interviews: winning New Visual Artists Eleanor Grosch, Zigmunds Lapsa, Christian Cervantes, and Kate & Camilla (for Print)
Profile: lindy hop legend Frankie Manning (for Newsday, with Robert Fouch)
Feature: Rea Irvin, illustrator, bon vivant, and The New Yorker's first art director (for Print)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World by Julian Dibbell (for Newsday)
Review: Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley (for Newsday)
Review: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry (for Print)
Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Report: The New Yorker's redesigned website (for Print)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
Interview: Matthew Diffee on the appropriately inappropriate cartoons of the The Rejection Collection (for Print)
Interview: Roz Chast on Brooklyn, pysanky eggs, and animation (for Newsday)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Interview: Edward Gorey (for Newsday)

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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.

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Books, Organizations, &c.

Founded by Emily Gordon, edited by Martin Schneider, designed by House of Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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