In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

I have almost nothing checked to read in the Fiction Issue (June , but I did read the article about the book about the astrologer Linda Goodman.

I think that's correct. Then there was Hints from Heloise. And of course Miss Manners, though she didn't come until later.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Maybe there's more in the fiction issue anyway. ... 

I've read Louis Menand on "Lady Chatterley's Lover," and I want to read Peter Hessler. I may read the article about the president of FIFA because some matches are being played here in Philadelphia.

(OT, but the baseball All-Star Game will be played here, too.)

I might read Jonathan Franzen, too.

[serious crayons]

I've read Louis Menand on "Lady Chatterley's Lover,"

I've liked Louis Menand's writing since the early '90s, although I think back then he might have been writing for Harper's. In any case, I lived in NYC for the '93-'94 school year, and at one point I impulsively looked up his name in the phone book (a resource that existed back then), and he was right there! I didn't call him or go stalk his house or anything and I'm sure there were plenty of other famous names in the phone book, but I was pretty startled to see someone I considered famous living like a regular person. Now, of course, even regular people are hard to look up.

I haven't seen the Franzen but I bet it's worth reading.

[Front-Ranger]

I haven't seen the Franzen but I bet it's worth reading.

I was disappointed in it. It was set in Montana and read like that other author from Montana's work. Or like DFW. But your mileage may vary.

[serious crayons]

It was set in Montana and read like that other author from Montana's work.

Norman Maclean, Richard Ford, Rick Bass, Tom McGuane or Jim Harrison?

Now I'm curious enough to read it! I do like DFW, as you know.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I finished Peter Hessler in the June 8 issue.

I presume he had a talk with his parents before the article was published.

You knew what was coming when he described the man putting his hand in Hessler's pocket.

Actually, what I liked best about the article was the quote from Thorstein Veblen:

"Always and everywhere, invention is the mother of necessity."

That encapsulates my feelings about updates in tech products (I guess Microsoft products particularly), I don't see software guys solving problems. I see a lot of tech bros sitting around, and somebody says, "Wouldn't it be neat if we could ... ?" So they all get to work developing something just because they can even though it's not needed, and when they've finished their invention, they come up with some reason why it was necessary to invent it. Invention is the mother of necessity.

Thorstein Veblen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen