In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

At lunch today I was entertainingly appalled by another Lauren Collins article, this one in the April 16 issue, about Brits (specifically university students) on holiday in Croatia--or what we in the colonies should say, on spring break. In response to the article, all I can really say is, No wonder they lost the empire. ... 

OTOH, it's kind of comforting to know that spring breakers from the U.K. aren't very different from spring breakers in the U.S. I was afraid it was just us. ... 

[serious crayons]

I'm in the middle of three New Yorker stories from three different issues simultaneously: the Robert Caro one about LBJ's experiences during Kennedy's assassination, Jill Lepore's article about the madness of our gun culture, and the one about whether Obama made missteps in handling the economy.

[ifyoucantfixit]

   No wonder you have a hard time writing some times.   Wow, are you doing research?

[Jeff Wrangler]

In the May 21 issue, I read the "Talk of the Town" mini profile of Dustin Lance Black (Milk). I was charmed to read there that according to the mother of author Pat Conroy, "All Southern literature can be summed up in these words: 'On the night the hogs ate Willie, Mama died when she heard what Daddy did to Sister.'"

[Front-Ranger]

In the May 21 issue, I read the "Talk of the Town" mini profile of Dustin Lance Black (Milk). I was charmed to read there that according to the mother of author Pat Conroy, "All Southern literature can be summed up in these words: 'On the night the hogs ate Willie, Mama died when she heard what Daddy did to Sister.'"

That WAS funny.

I'm so pleased to see that the double fiction issue that just arrived has an article by Ray Bradbury and also one by Anthony Burgess of Clockwork Orange fame. The articles are both very good. Bradbury is still whip smart!

[Front-Ranger]

I'm so pleased to see that the double fiction issue that just arrived has an article by Ray Bradbury and also one by Anthony Burgess of Clockwork Orange fame. The articles are both very good. Bradbury is still whip smart!

Now I'm going to reread that article since it's probably the last thing we'll have the opportunity to read from him. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I wonder whether Mr. Shawn ever permitted a deliberate sentence fragment, like this one:

(From the July 2 story by William Finnegan about the Mexican drug cartels fighting over Guadalajara)

"They were local people who had recently gone missing. Ordinary citizens, not narcos, kidnapped and murdered. Four were said to have been students at the University of Guadalajara."

At least, I assume it's deliberate.

[Front-Ranger]

Well, there were lots of similar fragments in Brokeback Mountain, which was published by the New Yorker in 1997. But I think Tina Brown was editor then.

Is that really a sentence fragment? It has a subject and two verbs.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Is that really a sentence fragment? It has a subject and two verbs.

Something is certainly wrong with it. Kidnap and murder are verbs--maybe transitive verbs--needing to pass their action on to a direct object? And they don't do that here. The meaning is that ordinary citizens were kidnapped and murdered, not that ordinary citizens kidnapped and murdered other people. But the were is missing.

[Front-Ranger]

I agree that something's wrong with it. But Annie Proulx uses wrong sentences effectively. However, this one's confusing too.