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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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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Provocateur

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: cartoons, comics, 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: The Tea Party Party

Filed under: The Wavy Rule Tagged: cartoons, comics, Pollux, tea, tea party, Tea Partyers, The Wavy Rule

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

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Drawing Dilorom: The Roz Chast Cover I've Already Seen on the F Train

Filed under: Little Words Tagged: Elif Batuman, freemasons, Roz Chast

Jonathan Taylor writes:

At her website, Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, gives a little backstory on the development of the obviously fun cover by Roz Chast—and also links to a compilation of Masonic references in New Yorker cartoons (as of 2004). (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.

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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.

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.

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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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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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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