In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

That's the point, isn't it? TNY puts too much between the name of the speaker and "said." "Cruz, who is white, said" seems perfectly fine to me, but there you have it, only three words, and short words at that, between "Cruz" and "said."

[serious crayons]

That's the point, isn't it? TNY puts too much between the name of the speaker and "said." "Cruz, who is white, said" seems perfectly fine to me, but there you have it, only three words, and short words at that, between "Cruz" and "said."

Yes, it's clearly about the number of words. The Cruz sentence above works perfectly well. To me, "said Cruz, who is white" reads more smoothly, but then I'm more used to that structure.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Is this a whopper, or what?

The May 17 issue has a Talk of the Town piece about Andrew Lloyd Webber restoring the Theatre Royal Drury Lane along with an architectural historian identified as Simon Thurley. This individual is mentioned as Thurley a number of times in the article, except once, in this sentence: "Among other changes, Lloyd Webber and Hurley have removed some two hundred and fifty seats. ..."

"Hurley"?

[serious crayons]

Mr. Shawn is spinning!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Mr. Shawn is spinning!

I thought the same thing.

Seriously, don't they have anybody to proofread the magazine anymore? 

[Front-Ranger]

... identified as Simon Thurley. This individual is mentioned as Thurley a number of times in the article, except once, in this sentence: "Among other changes, Lloyd Webber and Hurley have removed some two hundred and fifty seats. ..."

"Hurley"?[/font][/size]

Oops!! When I was in London last fall I stayed at a flat near the theater district. It was eerie walking around and seeing the huge signs for shows like Frozen, advertising a spring 2020 opening. While the buildings and streets themselves were dark and lonely looking. On the other hand, it was nice to see the town as the locals see it, without all the crowds. Everywhere, people were busy with repairs, maintenance and beautification projects. I rather enjoyed it. 

[Front-Ranger]

I thought "Peripheral Proust", a book review by Adam Gopnik in the May 10 issue, was very well written. It was a delight to my literary nerdery that he identifies six different Prousts: the Period, Philosophical, Psychological, "Perverse", Political, and Poetic Proust, and discusses each one of them at length.

The theory of Relativity is part of his work as the title of his masterwork In Search of Lost Time suggests (why the English decided to name it "Remembrance of Past Time" is not fully explained). Also, his philosophy that how we imagine or perceive reality is more important than reality itself. A third way Proust prefigured scientific knowledge is in electromagnetism, where positive and negative charges oscillate. "The truth of the battery is, for Proust, the truth of humankind; it must have two poles or it can carry no charge," Gopnik writes.

I also enjoyed "The UFO Papers" in the same issue, although it is awfully long. If you want a concise synopsis, the story seeks to authenticate the field of UFOlogy by example after example (after example after example after example) of "credible" sightings. This spring I've been involved in a lot of manual labor and have had to take a one- to two-hour break each day, so I've been able to almost stay on top of my New Yorkers.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I also enjoyed "The UFO Papers" in the same issue, although it is awfully long. If you want a concise synopsis, the story seeks to authenticate the field of UFOlogy by example after example (after example after example after example) of "credible" sightings. This spring I've been involved in a lot of manual labor and have had to take a one- to two-hour break each day, so I've been able to almost stay on top of my New Yorkers.

That one disappointed me. It started out interesting, but then I felt it sorted of petered out.

This much I did note with interest. There was mention of a case in West Virginia in the Fifties when a farm family claimed to have been attacked by aliens. Well, a couple of years ago, I enjoyed the History Channel's scripted drama Project Blue Book, which took its name from the so-called research project, and had as its main character. J. Allen Hynek. One of the episodes in the show was based on that West Virginia incident, and Hynek was portrayed as dismissing the "aliens" as owls--which is exactly what happened. The aliens were dismissed as owls.

I guess this has been mentioned before somewhere, but Hynek had a cameo in Close Encounters. We see him at the landing facility. He has a gray beard and glasses, and he's smoking a pipe.

Another episode in the show had a kind of "flash forward" to show Hynek and his wife being interviewed by a reporter on the set of Close Encounters. I think it was nice of Spielberg to give him the cameo because it was Hynek who created the numerical series to describe encounters with extraterrestials

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm enjoying the May 17 article about the Disgusting Food Museum.

I read it over dinner. I dare anyone to do the same. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I hope Jill Lepore won't be angry with me  but I did not go directly to her article on burnout in the May 24 issue. I just started it over lunch today, and I'm enjoying it, but the first thing I read was Rebecca Mead on the Cerne Giant. I wish Mead had not only gone into the question of when the Giant was made, but also how it was made: How do you go about making such a huge design when the only way you can see it is from across the valley or from the air?

That reminds me of how the "Ancient Alien" enthusiasts see the Nazca lines in South America: you can only see the designs from the air, ergo they must have been laid out by Ancient Aliens in spacecrafts.