In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

Sure enough. I get the reference, but that isn't necessarily what 91 looks like. My father was a month short of 94 when he died, and he had "a lot more meat on his bones" than she does. You frequently see film on news reports of birthday celebrations for people who  have reached or even passed 100, and they look healthier than she does. She looks like a stick figure.

I guess. Years ago, I did a package of profiles of centenarians. They ranged from a woman who sat silently at the table while I talked to her family members but could not hear, see, or get around on her own ... to a man who walked to the senior center and back every day and trimmed the trees in his yard with a long pole tree trimmer. Another woman told me about her experiences in the 1918 flu that killed her boss and a lot of other people she knew.

[Jeff Wrangler]

In an article in the May 5 issue I came across a phrase I absolutely love: "effortlessly well-dressed." 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I presume by now we've all read Anthony Lane's article on memoirs of TNY in the May 12 &19 issue. If you haven't read it, you should, because it's absolutely delightful.

I've grumbled enough about the magazine's way with capitalizing, or not capitalizing, the first word of a direct quotation, but the magazine's idiosyncratic way of not italicizing book titles kind of annoys me, too. That was one thing I was taught you were supposed to italicize.

[serious crayons]

I can't remember what TNY does, but AP Style calls for quotation marks, not italics.

Of course, TNY ignores AP on a million other things, like the diaresis (and don't they still spell out large numbers, whereas AP says use numerals for everything from 10 on up?).

[Jeff Wrangler]

I can't remember what TNY does, but AP Style calls for quotation marks, not italics.

Of course, TNY ignores AP on a million other things, like the diaresis (and don't they still spell out large numbers, whereas AP says use numerals for everything from 10 on up?).

I believe they do. I seem to remember seeing some examples in articles I recently read.

[serious crayons]

Another one -- I'm not sure this is an AP style rule so much as a widespread writing convention -- is they won't write "said Pete Buttegeig, a Democratic former naval officer who served as the 19th United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025 and as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020." Instead, they'll write, "Pete Buttageig, a Democratic former naval officer who served as the 19th United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025 and as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020, said."

That's one of several New Yorker affectations I find annoying. That and the diaresis: "Pete Buttegeig was hoping Donald Trump would not get re?lected. But Trump won, receiving seventy-seven million, two-hundred eighty-four, one hundred and eighteen votes."

[Jeff Wrangler]

Another one -- I'm not sure this is an AP style rule so much as a widespread writing convention -- is they won't write "said Pete Buttegeig, a Democratic former naval officer who served as the 19th United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025 and as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020." Instead, they'll write, "Pete Buttageig, a Democratic former naval officer who served as the 19th United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025 and as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020, said."

Yeah, we've discussed that one before. It drives me to distraction.

[Front-Ranger]

My magazine didn't arrive last week! I think it may have been delivered to another address. Did I miss anything worthwhile? I could request another copy to be sent to me, but it takes a lot of time.

[Jeff Wrangler]

My magazine didn't arrive last week! I think it may have been delivered to another address. Did I miss anything worthwhile? I could request another copy to be sent to me, but it takes a lot of time.

Can you estimate what the cover date should have been. Hard to tell otherwise.

I thought you accessed it online, too. 

[Front-Ranger]

The publication date would be, roughly, today, June 9. Yes, I can access it online, but prefer not to.