In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

I read the article on the dire wolf unextinction in the latest issue. Aside from the last page, there is very little about the dire wolf. I recca-mend skipping over the first few pages.

I'm reading that article now (haven't finished it yet). All I'll say here is that I won't be surprised if the whole thing turns out to be a colossal scam.

[Front-Ranger]

I'm reading that article now (haven't finished it yet). All I'll say here is that I won't be surprised if the whole thing turns out to be a colossal scam.

I saw what you did there.... The name of the company is Colossal, isn't it? 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I saw what you did there.... The name of the company is Colossal, isn't it? 

Actually, that was an entirely fortuitous accident! 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I got on my soapbox on my blog, inspired by Jon Lee Anderson's article in the April 14 issue. I didn't think it was appropriate to do it here.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I think you might say the short story "Jenny Annie Fanny Addie" in the April 21 issue includes a mondegreen, or at least the discussion of one. Apparently people hear the familiar Dylan lyric as "Take a load off, Annie," when it's actually "Take a load off Fanny," also with no comma before the name.

Commas matter.

[serious crayons]

The Band, specifically Robbie Robertson, wrote "The Weight" (although I've heard complaints that other Band members aren't sufficiently recognized for songwriting) and recorded the most familiar versions. The confusion probably stems from the fact that the Band often played with Dylan, including in Music from Big Pink, a collaboration recorded in a house they called Big Pink. I'm a fan of the Band, so I've heard that song a million times -- in fact, I inherited their self-named album from my parents. I've always heard it as Fanny.

Oh wait, I guess it even gets more complex, in a way that explains why the song might be falsely credited to Dylan:

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/bob-dylan-the-weight-the-band-explained-1100673/

[Jeff Wrangler]

It seems so often I'll come across something I'd like to comment on, but at the moment I'm not able to comment, and then I forget to do it. 

I meant to comment on the photo essay of celebrities in their living rooms. Did anybody else check that out?

I was really, truly shocked by the photo of Gloria Steinem.

I'm not being ageist or looksist here. She looked positively skeletal. There appears to be no muscle mass left on her arms; they look like sticks. Her hands really do look like skeleton hands.

With her body in that condition, I imagine she doesn't have too much time left.

[serious crayons]

This is what 91 looks like.

(Reference, in case by chance you hadn't already heard of it, to her famous "This is what 40 looks like" 51 years ago, responding to a journalist who said she didn't look 40.)

She actually does look 91, though IMO not necessarily on the brink of death any more than anyone who is 91 is on the brink of death.

Theoretically, she could live another 30 years and still be younger than the oldest living human on record, who was 122.

I'm more shocked by Diane von Furstenberg, with the giant portrait of herself.

[Jeff Wrangler]

This is what 91 looks like.

(Reference, in case by chance you hadn't already heard of it, to her famous "This is what 40 looks like" 51 years ago, responding to a journalist who said she didn't look 40.)

She actually does look 91, though IMO not necessarily on the brink of death any more than anyone who is 91 is on the brink of death.

Theoretically, she could live another 30 years and still be younger than the oldest living human on record, who was 122.

I'm more shocked by Diane von Furstenberg, with the giant portrait of herself.

Sure enough. I get the reference, but that isn't necessarily what 91 looks like. My father was a month short of 94 when he died, and he had "a lot more meat on his bones" than she does. You frequently see film on news reports of birthday celebrations for people who  have reached or even passed 100, and they look healthier than she does. She looks like a stick figure.

[Front-Ranger]

The thing that struck me about that photo essay was that every living room except one was basically the same color: sort of buttermilk, off-white, cream, or light terracotta. Why?  The interior designer was the exception with lovely green walls. Oh, and also the living room of Martin Scorsese has dark paneling.

Oh, and I was happy to find out that Francesca is Scorsese's daughter.