In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

I always imagine him looking like the Jon Anderson of Yes fame.

[serious crayons]

90% actually.

Right, but the last time it was 90% was in the '50s. Since I was making reference to the Reagan Administration, which was the turning point, I went lower and sort of split the difference. Actually, in 1980 it was 70%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States

[Jeff Wrangler]

I always imagine him looking like the Jon Anderson of Yes fame.

I don't know who he is, but I figure someone named "Jon Lee" must be from the South.

Edit to add: Well, his mother taught in Florida. ...  

At least this answers my question about what he looks like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lee_Anderson

Dang. No picture of Dexter Filkins. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Filkins

[Jeff Wrangler]

From my blog, today:

At lunch today I read Gay Talese's article in the Sept. 19 New Yorker about Tony Bennett recording "The Lady is a Tramp" as a duet with Lady Gaga. I loved the article! I loved that Tony Bennett called Lady Gaga "a sweet little Italian-American girl who studied at N.Y.U."   I thought it was very interesting that Lady Gaga has a vocal coach; somehow, I just don't associate in my mind singers like her having vocal coaches, yet, according to the article, her coach has also worked with Mick Jagger, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, Bono, and Jon Bon Jovi.

I also learned a bit about the song. Possibly I knew it was Rodgers and Hart and had just forgotten it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't know it was a show tune, from Babes in Arms (1937).

[Front-Ranger]

The only thing I didn't like about it was that it seemed to be a manufactured story.

So, TB had his birthday party in New York on the night of the Emmys and apparently Alec Baldwin, pissed that a joke he told about Rupert Murdoch was cut, went to the party instead of the Emmys. I missed the show because I had a slight eye infection. Looks like I didn't miss much!!

There's an upcoming story about the lone pharmacist in Nucla, Colorado that is very much worth a look.

[serious crayons]

The only thing I didn't like about it was that it seemed to be a manufactured story.

I haven't read the story, but I'm curious about what you mean. Manufactured how?

I missed the show because I had a slight eye infection. Looks like I didn't miss much!!

I didn't see it either, though I did see some clips posted on blogs and so on the next day that were amusing.

There's an upcoming story about the lone pharmacist in Nucla, Colorado that is very much worth a look.

I'll look for it!

[Front-Ranger]

I haven't read the story, but I'm curious about what you mean. Manufactured how?

Oh, it was just a mash-up of Talese, Bennett, and Gaga, as if there was an editorial meeting and someone said, "What can we do to promote Tony Bennett with his birthday coming up?"

[Front-Ranger]

I really enjoyed Alice Munro's short memoir "Dear Life" and am looking forward to reading about how T.S. Eliot became T.S. Eliot and about Wilhelm Reich and the sexual revolution. The fiction based on Pat Nixon, not so much.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I really enjoyed Alice Munro's short memoir "Dear Life" and am looking forward to reading about how T.S. Eliot became T.S. Eliot and about Wilhelm Reich and the sexual revolution. The fiction based on Pat Nixon, not so much.

I read the Alice Munro piece over lunch today. I enjoyed it. I didn't get the T.S. Eliot article, and I found the sexual revolution article only so-so. The Pat Nixon fiction doesn't interest me.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Over coffee and dessert after my dinner this evening I jumped ahead to the Sept. 26 issue to read Peter Hessler's piece about the man who runs the drug store in Nucla, Colorado. I first got out my atlas to see exactly where Nucla is. I wasn't that terribly far from it on my Durango ramble back at Memorial Day.

Anyway, the story had a surprisingly prominent gay angle. The druggist's older brother had been gay and basically went away to Chicago and became estranged from the family because his father was not accepting of his sexual orientation. He died of AIDs, but according to his wishes, the family scattered his ashes where he directed in Colorado. (The article didn't say whether anybody put a stone up anywhere.)

And then there was the story of the elderly closeted gay man who turned out to be connected to the once-powerful Penrose family of Philadelphia (in the first half of the 20th century, Boies Penrose of Philadelphia was a Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and a political boss of Pennsylvania). He was also estranged from his family because he was gay.

I thought this was a good article.