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Looked Into
Pencil It In
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Complete New Yorker, E.J. Kahn Jr., in memoriam, jazz, music, TOTT, William Shawn
Michael Leddy at the site Orange Crate Art (clearly, someone I would enjoy talking to) wonders if the author of a 1953 Talk of the Town about pencil use at the Eagle Pencil Company might, by virtue of the story’s eloquent phrasing (“We ducked as lead flew about us”) and its attention to pencils, have been longtime editor William Shawn. In fact, according to the Complete New Yorker, it’s by E. J. Kahn, Jr. Here’s the abstract.
Leddy also notes the sad passing of Mona Hinton, the wife of Milt Hinton and a friend of Leddy’s family, who died on May 3rd. He writes:The Hintons first met at Milt’s grandmother’s funeral in 1939 and were inseparable for the next 61 years. Mona traveled extensively with Milt throughout his career. She was the only spouse on the road with the Cab Calloway Orchestra in the 1940s, where, according to Milt, she was extremely helpful in finding rooms and meals for band members especially when the band worked in small towns during the Jim Crow era. During the ’50s and ’60s when Milt was working day and night in the New YorkWi studios, Mona kept the books and made often complicated transportation arrangements. And during the last two decades of his life, Milt and Mona got to travel to jazz festivals and clinics around the world — first class.(continued)
In Praise of Potty-Mouthed Panda Saviours
Filed under: Personal Tagged: Brian Luff, comedy, England, Georgina Sowerby, podcasts
The funny U is in honor of Georgina Sowerby and Brian Luff, whose incomparable podcast “The Big Squeeze,” now known as “It’s Sowerby & Luff,” is three years old this week. These Crouch Enders, who have become my friends and houseguests (not to mention Will Franken and Eliza Skinner admirers), have some exceptional associates, from Thesaurus Walrus and Candy Carrot-Cake to Doctor Rabbit and Nursey Lamb to the Queen herself, not to mention legions of fans in London and far, far afield. Raise a pint to them, won’t you? (continued)
The New Yorker Conference Is Quotable: Day Two
Filed under: New Yorker Festival Tagged: Election 2008, events, Fareed Zakaria, James Surowiecki, Jane McGonigal, Kal Raustiala, New Yorker Conference, Paco Underhill, Peter Gelb, politics, Rahm Emanuel, Raymond W. Kelly, Ryan Lizza, Scott Hemphill, Sheila Nevins, Steve Stoute
Undeclared superdelegate Rahm Emanuel’s declarations at the New Yorker Conference proved newsworthy, and the magazine has posted the video of Emanuel’s interview with Ryan Lizza on its website. Now we can fact-check my scribbled quotations together! Yesterday I posted the finest lines from day one, and here are my favorites from the conference’s windup. —MCS
“You cannot get a healthy meal in a New York airport unless you bring it yourself and figure out how to get it through the security checkpoints.” —Paco Underhill
“I believe passionately in rubber-soled shoes.” —Paco Underhill
“Metal chairs should not be part of an airport’s lexicon.” —Paco Underhill
“The filthiest place in the first world is the bathroom in the economy section of a crowded airplane.” —Paco Underhill
“I think of the airport as a Berlin, (continued)
The New Yorker Conference Is Quotable: Day One
Filed under: New Yorker Festival Tagged: Amy Smith, Andy Stern, Anne Wojcicki, Bill Buford, books, Daniel Humm, David Adjaye, David Chang, David Remnick, Duncan Sheik, Eric Haseltine, Francesco Vezzoli, Gavin Newsom, Linda Avey, Malcolm Gladwell, Marc Taxiera, Michael Novogratz, Michael Specter, politics, science, Susan Morrison, technology, Yoky Matsuoka
Martin spent the day yesterday flying down the heady waterslide that is the New Yorker Conference, where inventors, scientists, politicians, filmmakers, programmers, musicians, and others with an eye on the daunting/thrilling place that is the future talk with New Yorker editors and writers about their work. Now in its second year (it’s timed to go with the apparently now annual Innovators Issue), it’s a brainy mini-marathon, punctuated by sweeping visual effects (thanks in great part to Frank Gehry’s floaty IAC Building) and fancy snacks.
All of which I was sorry to miss this year, along with the strong and welcome sense that I had become smarter in a single day. Luckily for us, Martin got back from Austria just in time to attend, and is even now being walloped with more visionary ideas, but in the meantime, he’s collected some of the most memorable lines from the first set of conference conversations. Kottke has been blogging the conference as well (and made the magazine’s new Twitter feed), and we can look forward to hearing more from Martin soon. Will some of the talks be available later on video? As a low-tech guru once said, signs point to yes. —EG
“Malcolm Gladwell has a new book coming out next year. It has already sold two and a half trillion copies.” —David Remnick
“Imagine this enormous room filled with incredibly sweaty teenagers with teeth missing.” —Malcolm Gladwell
“Scouting combines are, for lack of a better word, a disaster.” —Malcolm Gladwell
“I don’t think anyone could look at the President of the United States (continued)
Dept. of Things That Make Us Grin, in Couplets
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: academia, cartoons, comics, eBay, events, fiction, Harold Ross, humor, New Yorker Conference, poetry, Pogo, TV, Walt Kelly
New Yorker letters: a batch you can buy!
Sublimely ridiculous scene: Family Guy.
The New Yorker Conference has been blazing all day!
Able Martin is on it—I’m closing away.
Walt Kelly in Madison, posing with Pogo;
Crazed MFA humor—Shouts & Murmurs take note.
That last, loosely rhymed item refers to a piece by Tom Hopkins, who has concocted something for everyone—wailing fiction writers, gnashing poets, and everyone in between.
And thanks to the all-seeing B.K. for the Pogo and eBay links above. Anyone have $995 they can lend me? If yes, after I read all the letters in this batch (“In one, Harold Ross declines the suggestion for a feature on Washington affairs, but suggests writing for other departments; ‘You could put a lot of things in there with a slight sarcastic touch’”), I think they should be given a proper home with their true friends in the New York Public Library, where they will be loved, enfolded in calm, cool boxes, and available to visit whenever we begin to miss them. (continued)
On the Moth podcast (which I love so much I’m now going to the live shows—backward, eh?), Adam Gopnik riffs endearingly on being the father of an adolescent boy, control, communication, silences, and the abbreviations within the abbreviations. (continued)
Designing Woman Tina Brown
Filed under: Eds. Tagged: Bernard Schoenbaum, cartoons, Charles Barsotti, circulation, design, Jack Ziegler, Rea Irvin, Tina Brown, typography
From today’s New York Post (via MediaBistro): “Tina Brown has turned to legendary avant-garde design firm Number 17 to handle her new yet-to-be-named Web venture, a news-aggregation service that is being backed by her longtime friend, media mogul Barry Diller.” I can attest both to No. 17’s design acumen and their laudable foosball hosting and playing skills.
Elsewhere in design, journalism and political science double major (and keyboard player) Teddy Applebaum, given the challenge of a mock blow-in card, struggled among various versions of Rea Irvin’s New Yorker typeface and their cost (“oodles of cash”), and had to settle for a poor imitation. Occasional spelling oversights aside, I think the kid’s got something, don’t you?
Speaking of blow-in cards, there was an eloquent defense of them in Wired some months ago that I keep thinking about, and not just because of the witty execution. It seems the cards really bring in the dough, and in these uncertain times, that’s something we’ve got to support (as this Jack Ziegler cartoon suggests), right? Or at least not judge too harshly, especially when in the forest, which could probably use more edifying reading material, anyway. (continued)
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)
The Lap of Luxury (Hotels), Circa 1958
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: ads, Complete New Yorker, fiction, Grover Amen, hotels
Benjamin Chambers writes:
One of the sweeter pleasures of paging through the Complete New Yorker is looking at the dated advertising, especially when a copywriter describes, with a flourish of trumpets, amenities we regard as either standard or puzzling.
For example, if you’d been looking for a quiet, upscale hotel in 1958, (continued)
Martin Schneider writes:
If this video doesn’t make you think of George Price, well, it certainly should.
More after the jump. (continued)
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.
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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.
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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.
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