In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

On Jeopardy! this evening: E.B. White said that The New Yorker used commas with the precision of knives in a circus act.  

E.B. White was on Jeopardy?! Wow, that must have been some show! A rerun, maybe?

 

[serious crayons]

Talk about disorienting!
Many European countries use some variation of the AZERTY keyboard (also QWERTZ).  This is the French one:



I borrowed a friend's laptop once and was hopelessly confounded.  

I cqn understqnd why! I zould hqve been, too.

[Jeff Wrangler]

E.B. White was on Jeopardy?! Wow, that must have been some show! A rerun, maybe?

 

Yeah. He competed against James Thurber and Harold Ross. ... 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I enjoyed the article about Prince Charles in the latest issue. Some eye-opening revelations there.

I read that one over supper last night. It reminded me of something I've thought of before. The author logically refers to the prince as being the future "Charles III." I wonder, though, if that is how he'll reign if he ever does reign. "Charles" is not an auspicious name for a king of England: The first one lost his head (literally) and the second one wasn't much better, although he did die in his bed. We know that Queen Victoria was named Alexandrina Victoria, but chose to reign as Victoria. The prince's name in full is Charles Philip Arthur George. If he gets to pick, I think he'd be much better advised to reign as "George VII." His grandfather was George VI, and I think you could say he had a successful reign, seeing England through World War II and all, and he and "the Queen Mum" were loved by the people. At any rate, he was much more successful than Charles I or Charles II.

The Queen is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Elizabeth for her "mum," Alexandra for her great-grandmother, and Mary for her grandmother.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Over lunch today I finished "The God Pill" (April 3). This is another article that I find longer than necessary. I recommend skipping it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am still struggling to get through the April 3 "Health, Medicine & the Body" issue.

The whole damn issue is a "duty." 

I'm about to give up on it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I did give up on the "Health, Medicine & Body" issue.  

But then this evening I came across the funniest thing I've read in a while. In the April 24 issue, Anthony Lane reviews A Quiet Passion, the new film about Emily Dickinson. There's nothing funny about that, but then in the same article he goes on to review the car-chase-and-crash movie The Fate of the Furious, and he does his review of that movie in a poem imitating Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death."  

[serious crayons]

But then this evening I came across the funniest thing I've read in a while. In the April 24 issue, Anthony Lane reviews A Quiet Passion, the new film about Emily Dickinson. There's nothing funny about that, but then in the same article he goes on to review the car-chase-and-crash movie The Fate of the Furious, and he does his review that a poem imitating Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." 

Oh, I'll have to look that up. There was a while there when I wouldn't miss a review by Anthony Lane, even of a movie I'd never want, or get a chance, to see. He's so clever. Lately I've begun thinking of him as a bit too clever at times -- writing things just for the sake of making jokes as opposed to things that are integral to the review.

But that sounds like a really appropriate opportunity for cleverness! And he can be brilliant at it.

I remember a line of his -- I can't remember what star he was talking about, but let's say it was Tom Cruise. "I'll admit, the walls of my bedroom are not shrouded with posters of Tom Cruise, but ..." he said, meaning he wasn't normally the hugest fan but in this movie Cruise was pretty good. That joke fit organically into the review. But sometimes they seem like too much of a stretch.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Oh, I'll have to look that up. There was a while there when I wouldn't miss a review by Anthony Lane, even of a movie I'd never want, or get a chance, to see. He's so clever. Lately I've begun thinking of him as a bit too clever at times -- writing things just for the sake of making jokes as opposed to things that are integral to the review.

But that sounds like a really appropriate opportunity for cleverness! And he can be brilliant at it.

I remember a line of his -- I can't remember what star he was talking about, but let's say it was Tom Cruise. "I'll admit, the walls of my bedroom are not shrouded with posters of Tom Cruise, but ..." he said, meaning he wasn't normally the hugest fan but in this movie Cruise was pretty good. That joke fit organically into the review. But sometimes they seem like too much of a stretch.

Yeah, I agree. Sometimes he does seem too clever by half. But the faux Dickinson poem is brilliant, even if he does use a word or two that would have given Mr. Shawn a heart attack. 

[southendmd]

I love Anthony Lane.  

Several years ago, he put out a book that was mostly a compilation of his New Yorker reviews, plus a few random essays. It's called "Nobody's Perfect", an allusion to "Some Like It Hot".