In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

I guess I'm somehow a month behind now. I don't think I'll catch unless I skip some issues altogether. 

I could never do that. Which is how i wound up with a 2'-tall stack of New Yorkers. I let my whole subscription lapse for a few months (which I guess is the equivalent of skipping issues). Now I just have the digital and I forget to go there at all.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I could never do that. Which is how i wound up with a 2'-tall stack of New Yorkers. I let my whole subscription lapse for a few months (which I guess is the equivalent of skipping issues). Now I just have the digital and I forget to go there at all.

What I've been doing is that whenever a new issue arrives, I look through the TOC and mark the stories I want to read. Sometimes this doesn't help because there are many articles I want to read plus many I think I should read. 

[serious crayons]

What I've been doing is that whenever a new issue arrives, I look through the TOC and mark the stories I want to read. Sometimes this doesn't help because there are many articles I want to read plus many I think I should read. 

I do that on my second round of sorting. When the issue arrives, I try to immediately read anything by writers I like, followed by subjects that sound interesting. When they start to pile up unfinished, I look at the ToCs and circle articles I want to read, recycling any in which I've already read all the interesting things. Finally, months later, I go through and rip out and staple articles I still want to read. I still wind up with a stack of reading, but it's a shorter stack. And I can fold up individual articles and carry them in a purse or whatever.



 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I just started Jill Lepore's Sept. 28 article about A.I., and I'm finding it truly frightening. It sounds as though some A.I. "agents" have already learned to "think for themselves" and communicate with other agents. If they can get control of nuclear weapons, we're all done-for.

[Front-Ranger]

Yes, that article really sums it up well. Things are more dire than we know. 

There are several pieces worth perusing in the September 28 issue. First, the cover is a classic: a tech guy trying to unplug a bank of servers and not being able to! The next most compelling thing is the profile of Barbara Kingsolver. The first part, the bio, is mildly interesting but it builds to a strong finish. Context around her masterpiece Demon Copperhead and her latest book Partita. At the end she champions the novel as the antidote for the chaos of mis- and information that we are force fed. No wonder novel reading is more popular than ever. "Baby Steps" is a book review by Margaret Talbot on the ongoing concern about fertility rates, noting that women have more options these days. I even liked the review of the book about Tom Brady and how he squandered his family to chase more broken records and wins. And there's an interesting piece about punctuation quoting Jane Austen. I would NOT recommend the fiction "Dark Horse" because I can't stand reading about animal abuse, and abuse of a horse most of all.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes, that article really sums it up well. Things are more dire than we know. 

There are several pieces worth perusing in the September 28 issue. First, the cover is a classic: a tech guy trying to unplug a bank of servers and not being able to! The next most compelling thing is the profile of Barbara Kingsolver. The first part, the bio, is mildly interesting but it builds to a strong finish. Context around her masterpiece Demon Copperhead and her latest book Partita. At the end she champions the novel as the antidote for the chaos of mis- and information that we are force fed. No wonder novel reading is more popular than ever. "Baby Steps" is a book review by Margaret Talbot on the ongoing concern about fertility rates, noting that women have more options these days. I even liked the review of the book about Tom Brady and how he squandered his family to chase more broken records and wins. And there's an interesting piece about punctuation quoting Jane Austen. I would NOT recommend the fiction "Dark Horse" because I can't stand reading about animal abuse, and abuse of a horse most of all.

Something else also immediately caught my attention. The page facing the Contributors page is an ad for an audio series about a couple in L.A. who "collected" babies. Seems to me some time ago TNY ran an article about these people, and also maybe a week or so ago I saw a TV news report that these people have been arrested (I think at least charged with Child Endangerment).

 I'm glad you mentioned the punctuation article; I might have missed it, even though I always read Louis Menand. I almost missed Margaret Talbot, too. I might have skipped the article about Tom Brady. I'll at least make a start at the Texas and Netanyahu articles.

I'll be skipping Barbara Kingsolver. I've heard the name, but I've never read any of her books. These days when I read a novel it's one where the protagonist is a gay male.

[serious crayons]

I always read Louis Menand. I almost missed Margaret Talbot, too.

I always read Louis Menand, too. When I lived in New York in 1993-94 I was such a Menand fan that I looked him up in the NY phone book and there he was! I could have knocked on his door! I didn't look up anyone else, but I bet a lot of famous people would have been in there.

Now, of course, there are no phone books and everyone has cell phones anyway.

I usually try to read Margaret Talbot, too.