In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

But a supermarket? Believe me, the audience for that one was limited to people who work in supermarkets.

Was that the one about Whole Foods? I remember an article about Whole Foods, but I don't remember one about an ordinary supermarket. 

Not that it really matters. 

[serious crayons]

Was that the one about Whole Foods? I remember an article about Whole Foods, but I don't remember one about an ordinary supermarket. 

No, it was just some supermarket in Manhattan. This was a long time ago, pre-Tina Brown.

A Whole Foods profile would at least have some interesting political stuff in it. This was purely about how the store operated, at least as far as I got, which was about halfway. It was my turning point where I discovered that just because something's in the New Yorker doesn't mean it's worth reading.

[Jeff Wrangler]

A Whole Foods profile would at least have some interesting political stuff in it. This was purely about how the store operated, at least as far as I got, which was about halfway. It was my turning point where I discovered that just because something's in the New Yorker doesn't mean it's worth reading.

I seem to remember that it did, that Whole Foods and the guy who founded it aren't all they're cracked up to be.

[Front-Ranger]

As usual, Elizabeth Kolbert's latest article is fascinating. This is about the quest to get rid of imported mammals in New Zealand to save birds and other native species that are dying out.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/big-kill?intcid=mod-most-popular

[Front-Ranger]

At this site, Garrison Keillor sings a moving tribute to the unnamed "angel" who read the first story he sent in to the New Yorker in 1969:

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/listen/?date=2014/12/27

He speaks for writers everywhere!

[Front-Ranger]

The January 5 issue was fairly interesting except for the fiction and a long article about Armenia (even there, the photos were interesting). David Sedaris weighed in with "Leviathan". . . how does he create these pieces so effortlessly out of nothing? I would not get away with writing about my family so honestly. I wouldn't get invited to any other family functions! (Of course, in my nuclear family there are no family functions. My brother's in LA and, while he travels a lot, he comes here once a year or less. My sister's in SLC and never comes here.)

"The Virologist" exposes the superficiality behind Facebook, the Internet, etc. The subject, a twenty-something named Emerson Spartz, doesn't come across very well in the article. He probably thought being in The New Yorker would be a great opportunity for fame for him. (Maybe he still does!)

The satire one-pager about Sting was a little sad and underhanded. And dated. I see in the theater pages of that issue that The Last Ship isn't playing anymore.

Louis Menaud's article about the rise of the pulp paperbacks and the classics that piggybacked onto them, was very interesting. I was a teenager during the Peyton Place craze and was mystified by it. The television show starred Mia Farrow, Ryan O'Neal and Dorothy Malone. I was not allowed to see it but I did read about the stars and plot lines. The paperback sold 10 million copies! After hearing about Peyton Place and reading some bodice-rippers that my Mom had, I got a warped opinion about adults. They all seemed hypnotized and crazed by the opposite sex, just animals pretending to be grown-ups. I decided I wanted to stay a kid and I was definitely a late bloomer.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The January 5 issue was fairly interesting.

Sounds like a real cracker-jack issue! I can't wait till I finish Dec. 22 & 29 so I can start it! 

[Front-Ranger]

Oh, Jeff, it sounds like you didn't take your issues with you when you went to your dad's for vacation. I'll try not to have any spoilers.

I'm not sure what to say about the review of the novelist Rachel Cusk. She apparently is very popular in England but I was put off by the description of her work as "autobiographical fiction." She writes about couples who have an occupational gender switch and subsequent divorce when that is her own recent experience. Plus, I wasn't cheered by her recent admission that she is experiencing writer's bloc and that she now finds fiction "fake and embarrassing." But there are a few passages in the review that make it worth reading, plus she is grappling with many of the same issues I am, so the words are relevant. I would suspect that in her "novels" the female protagonist is portrayed in too positive a light while the male is vilified. So what help would that be?

Last is "Button Pusher" a review of the British TV series "Black Mirror." The show sounds terrifying to me. Dystopian cautionary tales depress me but there have been a few good ones. I'll probably end up watching the series. About a third of the way into the review, Emily Nussbaum, the author, cautions that the rest of the review has spoilers. Did I stop reading? No. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Oh, Jeff, it sounds like you didn't take your issues with you when you went to your dad's for vacation. I'll try not to have any spoilers.

Ah, but I did. That's how come I'm caught up to Dec. 22 & 29. 

(Over my week away I also read the latest--or maybe the latest in paperback--Wind River Mystery, Buffalo Bill's Dead Now, by Margaret Coel.)

[Jeff Wrangler]

Louis Menand's article about the rise of the pulp paperbacks and the classics that piggybacked onto them, was very interesting.

Even though I still have to read the article about invasive species in New Zealand, I skipped ahead and read this one over supper last night. I thought it was very interesting, too. I really enjoyed it. Those old covers were a hoot! And imagine a time when you could buy a book for a quarter!