Jonathan Taylor writes:

My pick of the March 1 issue is the March 1 issue, just for provoking a Pick of the Issue post. Larissa MacFarquhar's Profile of Paul Krugman is eye-catching, prima facie, though I'd like to see a piece looking more broadly at the world of economics blogging that Krugman is now engaged with via his Times blog. That could bring us full circle, via Tyler Cowen of George Mason University, to the subject of the issue of Calvin Trillin's (gated) piece, peripatetic Sichuanese chef Peter Chang: This culinary legend of the U.S. Southeast is a central figure in Cowen's extenstive Ethnic Dining Guide. (Note to Tyler, put Famous Sichuan on Pell Street, and Grand Sichuan House of Bay Ridge on your New York City to-do list.)

My real pick is Ben McGrath's

Jonathan Taylor writes:

The world does not revolve around you: It's the most basic experience of the traveler. Elaborating on the concrete ways this truth manifests itself is the most basic structure of travel narrative—but one that too often, paradoxically, cements the observer at the center of things. Peter Hessler's dispatches from China are a lesson in overcoming this solipsism, and his "Letter from Lishui," in the October 26 issue, takes points of view on "the outside world" as its topic of characteristically agile inquiry. (Subscribers only; free audio slide show here.)

Lishui is about 200 miles southwest of Shanghai, a bit inland from China's Pacific coast. Its physical location is less important than its place in the global economy. It is a creature of the global economy because its factories produce components—"zippers, copper wiring, electric-outlet covers"—to be assembled by manufacturers elsewhere into finished goods. Yet it is at a firmly defined remove from the wider world. Representatives of foreign companies need not travel this far up China's supply chain, and shrapnel of Western popular culture lands there in isolated bits: a gym called The Scent of a Woman, or a tattoo randomly reading Kent (the cigarette brand).

Hessler introduces "Little Long," a dye factory technician who collects mangled self-help books like A Collection of the Classics, larded with dubious improving

Martin Schneider writes:

This, from the National Book Critics Circle, made its way to my in-box:

How reviewers are adapting to the new digital order has been one of the burning themes among NBCC members for the past year. NBCC board member Scott McLemee sends along notice of his own intervention of sorts: On Saturday, from 5 to 7 PM EST, he'll be hosting an on-line book salon about Adam Gopnik's Angels and Ages at Firedoglake.com. The transcripts of previous FDL salons, which have featured contributors ranging from Thomas Ricks to Rick Perlstein are here.

How intriguing! I'm sure that'll be terrific.

Martin Schneider writes:

Barry Blitt's vision of eight wailing Limbaughs was on the cover. Features included Jeffrey Toobin's look at Roland Burris, Keith Gessen's report on the Politkovskaya murder trial, and John McPhee's article on lacrosse.

Martin Schneider writes:

The Style Issue! Floc'h's vision of multiple Michelle Obamas on the catwalk was on the cover. Features included Lauren Collins's report on Bill Cunningham, Judith Thurman's article on Yasmina Reza, and Ariel Levy's look at Alber Elbaz.