Author Archives: Emdashes

Pigeon Protection: Change We Can Believe In

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_Pollux writes:_ Yes, we are “pro-pigeon”:http://emdashes.com/2006/02/i-salute-fellow-propigeon-new.php here at Emdashes, and we believe that these feathered friends of ours are not only beautiful icons of “New York and _New Yorker_ culture”:http://emdashes.com/2007/03/the-pigeon-files-part-the-firs.php but also need to be protected across America. That’s why we’ve given our support to “the proposal”:http://www.change.org/ideas/view/protect_pigeons_under_the_migratory_bird_treaty_act to change the legal status of the feral pigeon, first submitted by “The New York Bird Club”:http://www.manhattanbirdclub.com/ as one of the Ideas for Change in America.

Stamp of Good Greeting: Trebay Hails the Snail

Jonathan writes:
Since I first moved to the vanished city where I picked up–nay, purchased–a Village Voice each week to read his column, Times fashion hound and sometime Talk contributor Guy Trebay’s words have accompanied me along the borderlands between two New Yorks, the one I know and the one I don’t yet.
Still braced by Emily’s encyclical on the care that can add grace to regular communication at little cost, I was happy to see Trebay’s declaration of faith in physical Christmas cards, be they inspired divinely (from a holiday fair at Brick Church on the Upper East Side), or Divinely (by John Waters). Trebay is one of six writers in the Times identifying “The One Luxury I Won’t Do Without” this year (illustrated warmly by Greg Clarke, who has done at least one lovely New Yorker cover that I know of).

Best of the 12.15.08 Issue: Inefficient Gift-Delivery System

At least, that’s what the cover says to me! Jonathan Taylor praised the “delightfully Arno-esque cover,” adding that “the whip makes it extra saucy!” He’s got a point there; I had not contemplated this aspect.
The artist, Marcellus Hall, was also the musical force behind Railroad Jerk, whose “Sweet Librarian” made it onto many of my mixes during those years when Napster was big. I saw Hall play a ditty at a book event held at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater last February.
Jonathan and I also agreed about the issue’s pick: Quoth JT: “On a friend’s advice, I turned first to Roger Rosenblatt’s restrained piece on moving in with his son-in-law after the unexpected death of his 38-year-old daughter—a meditation on life more than on death, particularly as seen by being more part of his grandchildren’s lives than he otherwise would have been.” O discriminating friend! Rosenblatt’s “Making Toast” is surely a minor masterpiece. If nothing else, it can claim a feat that few other works can: augmenting the oeuvre of James Joyce. (You’ll have to “read”:http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2008-12-15#folio=044 it to get that; subscription req’d.)
Jonathan liked the Zachary Kanin’s Grim Reaper cartoon on p. 68, which had no difficulty eliciting a chortle out of me.

Mitchell on Beefsteaks: The Awesomest Article I’ve Read in Ages

Thank you thank you thank you Ben Miller at the “Internet Food Association”:http://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com for writing a “post”:http://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/bring-me-a-beefsteak/ about the _awesome_ local tradition of “beefsteaks” that mentions this marvelous _New York Times_ “article”:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30beef.html by Paul Lukas from nearly a year ago, which cites “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks,” by Joseph Mitchell, which appeared in _The New Yorker_ in 1939. If you have a “subscription”:http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1939-04-15#folio=040 or access to _The Complete New Yorker,_ I highly recommend that you go check it out. It just oozes awesomeness.
The heyday of the beefsteak tradition stretched from about the Civil War until Prohibition. The idea was that men (and only men) would gather in a saloon or a hall and consume meat (specifically, slices of grilled steak) and beer until the act of ingestion was no longer conceivable. They would sit on crates, with sawdust on the floor, and silverware was prohibited.
I think that covers the essentials. Needless to say, Mitchell was able to paint quite a picture on that subject. (I’d love to see Trillin or McPhee try to improve on it.)
I’ll end this with three awesome quotations from the article; the first two are spoken by people who appear in the story:

“The foundation of a good beefsteak is an overflowing amount of meat and beer.”
“When you go to a beefsteak, you got to figure on eating until it comes out of your ears. Otherwise it would be bad manners.”
“Women do not esteem a glutton.”

And there’s a lot more where that came from.
The best part? The tradition “still survives,”:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30beef.html in New Jersey.
_Update:_ The article is also available in Mitchell’s renowned collection _Up in the Old Hotel._
_Second Update:_ Not surprisingly, Emily was “on this whole thing”:http://emdashes.com/2008/01/people-like-winners.php when the Lukas article first appeared last year.