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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, with a Berlin Wall and a Checkpoint Charlie.” —Paco Underhill

“Has anyone had a pleasant experience at airport security? It’s a Stasi moment.” —Paco Underhill

“I think almost all of us agree that the airport experience is miserable.” —Paco Underhill

“World of Warcraft is the best-designed reality of all time.” —Jane McGonigal

“I have a dream of building an M.M.O. where your dog is your avatar.” —Jane McGonigal

“Miles per gallon is the new high score.” —Jane McGonigal

“I think there are people that know the Obamas better than Rahm does, there are probably people that know the Clintons better than Rahm does, but i don’t think there’s anyone in American politics that knows both the Clintons and the Obamas as well as Rahm does.” —Ryan Lizza

“At this point Barack is the presumptive nominee.” —Rahm Emanuel

“The reference point for change is George Bush.” —Rahm Emanuel

“Like in ‘06, you’ve got to go take it from them. They don’t give up power easily.” —Rahm Emanuel

In the two recent special elections in Louisiana and Illinois, “The Republicans ran on taxes in Republican districts and their ace for the last thirty years came up joker.” —Rahm Emanuel

“When Hillary Clinton says, ‘I’m not a quitter, I’m a fighter,’ that is an accurate depiction of who she is.” —Rahm Emanuel

“The government has succeeded in universalizing health care for a population, not the population.” —Rahm Emanuel

“It’s not a coincidence that the big discussion in the Democratic Party is about trade and the big discussion in the Republican Party is about immigration.” —Rahm Emanuel

“Verizon is in the record business. Proctor and Gamble is in the record business.” —Steve Stoute

“The poster child for that ‘no sellout’ thing was Bob Dylan, and he ends up in a Victoria Secret ad.” —Steve Stoute

“We know that New York is the number-one terrorist target in the United States.” — Raymond W. Kelly

“You’d be hard-pressed to look at the high-end fashion industry and say they’re in trouble.” —James Surowiecki

“A copyright on the pinstripe would certainly be troubling.” —Scott Hemphill

“H&M is kind of like a gateway drug.” —Kal Raustiala

“I have a certain aversion to most famous people.” —Sheila Nevins

“The fictionalization of war seems better suited for after the war.” —Sheila Nevins

“Daytime is boring.” —Sheila Nevins

Real Sex is our Sesame Street—people re-learn the alphabet every day.” —Sheila Nevins

“Opera fans are as fanatical about opera as sports fans are about sports.” —Peter Gelb

“One of the common errors that Americans make is to believe that all good things go together.” —Fareed Zakaria

“The real story is that the rest of the world is rising.” —Fareed Zakaria

“Over the last ten or fifteen years, China has opened up a lot more than people realize—but there are no political rights.” —Fareed Zakaria

“John McCain has drunk the neocon Kool-Aid.” —Fareed Zakaria

“It’s a good thing for there to be other centers of wealth.” —Fareed Zakaria

“In the Middle East, you had oil, you had failed dictatorships, and the two combined to form kind of an unholy alliance.” —Fareed Zakaria

“Being the 800-pound gorilla in the room is very different from being a small mouse in the room looking at the 800-pound gorilla.” —Fareed Zakaria

Note: Quotations are as accurate as I could make them; in a couple of instances I have replaced a pronoun with its antecedent.

Comments

When President Clinton put you on the political map, but you now serve in Illinois’ Congressional delegation with Sen. Obama, for whom do you cast your superdelegate ballot? It’s a stumper. No wonder Emanuel’s undeclared.

p.s. Emily, he lives a block away from me here in Chicago, so if you have an opinion on this one, let me know and I’ll mutter it next time I ride my bike past his house.

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2008 Webby Awards Official Honoree