In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

Good to know, I probably would have skipped that one otherwise but now I'll take a look.

The Joseph McCarthy one is interesting -- it's amazing how much that guy had in common with our current president. I'm reading the soap one, also interesting.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The Joseph McCarthy one is interesting -- it's amazing how much that guy had in common with our current president. I'm reading the soap one, also interesting.

The McCarthy one is indeed very interesting. I haven't gotten to the Clean one yet. I'm reading the Police one now.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've started the Jon Lee Anderson article (August 17), and I'm finding it really interesting because the subject is ... Jon Lee Anderson. As I've been reading it, I've been thinking that to have a life like his, you have to be the sort of person who doesn't worry about where his next meal is coming from (or what it will be), or where you're going to sleep that night, or when you'll get your next bath. You can't have any lifelong chronic health issues, and it helps to have connections. He had family connections; not everybody has a father who served in the U.S. Foreign Service or a geologist uncle. It takes imagination, too.

[serious crayons]

I've started the Jon Lee Anderson article (August 17), and I'm finding it really interesting because the subject is ... Jon Lee Anderson. As I've been reading it, I've been thinking that to have a life like his, you have to be the sort of person who doesn't worry about where his next meal is coming from (or what it will be), or where you're going to sleep that night, or when you'll get your next bath. You can't have any lifelong chronic health issues, and it helps to have connections. He had family connections; not everybody has a father who served in the U.S. Foreign Service or a geologist uncle. It takes imagination, too.

It probably helps to be male, too. Ariel Levy's "Thanksgiving in Mongolia" talks about how much she loves dashing around the world to foreign countries, apparently often by herself. But if you remember what happened in the story, you'll know a theme of the essay is how much this lifestyle can be different for a woman.

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

It probably helps to be male, too. Ariel Levy's "Thanksgiving in Mongolia" talks about how much she loves dashing around the world to foreign countries, apparently often by herself. But if you remember what happened in the story, you'll know a theme of the essay is how much this lifestyle can be different for a woman.

I don't remember that at all. 

I'm sure you're right about it helping to be a man. I'm sure a woman has to face some things that a man doesn't simply because she's a woman.

I do remember an article by a woman that had something to do with the Middle East, but I'm afraid I don't remember the author or really the subject of the article.

[serious crayons]

I don't remember that at all. 

(Spoiler alert!) She flies to Mongolia by herself when she's five months pregnant and miscarries the baby while alone in her hotel room. The baby is born alive, but quickly dies.

I'm sure you're right about it helping to be a man. I'm sure a woman has to face some things that a man doesn't simply because she's a woman.

Of course.

I do remember an article by a woman that had something to do with the Middle East, but I'm afraid I don't remember the author or really the subject of the article.

Among women who specialize in writing about overseas stuff, Jane Kramer comes to mind. I was going to say Anne Applebaum, but apparently she's with the Atlantic.

I'm sure there are others who either specialize or dabble in foreign reporting, but their names don't come readily to mind because, for me, almost all of those kinds of articles are very much "duty articles" -- in fact, they're the duties I'm most likely to shirk. If some woman wrote about the Middle East at some point, I almost certainly didn't read it, unless it's about the status of women in Middle Eastern countries, which I do find interesting.

But my choices aren't typically based on the gender of the author as much as subject matter and style. When I skim the authors on the ToC page, among those I'm most likely to open to immediately is David Sedaris, telling stories that are almost always about domestic situations. I much prefer those and stories about culture, like Malcolm Gladwell's.

[Jeff Wrangler]

(Spoiler alert!) She flies to Mongolia by herself when she's five months pregnant and miscarries the baby while alone in her hotel room. The baby is born alive, but quickly dies.

Is this online? Is it in the August 28 issue, which I haven't yet received (no doubt thanks to the new postmaster general).

What on earth was she doing flying off to Mongolia when she was five months pregnant? 

I haven't seen Jane Kramer's by-line for a very long time.

[serious crayons]

Is this online? Is it in the August 28 issue, which I haven't yet received (no doubt thanks to the new postmaster general).

It ran in November, 2013. I wouldn't have written a spoiler into something from an upcoming issue! But of course it's not so much the climax but the writing around it that makes it good. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/18/thanksgiving-in-mongolia

I haven't received my new issue either, but hadn't put it together with the USPS problems. First we can't vote, now we can't read the New Yorker -- they're really going after intelligent left-leaning citizens!

What on earth was she doing flying off to Mongolia when she was five months pregnant? 

Because the whole essay was about how much she likes flying off to places, because she knew once the baby came she wouldn't be able to for a while, and because her doctor said it was OK. Hence the gender division we were discussing.

BTW, it sounds like flying to Mongolia in and of itself did not cause the miscarriage; there was a pregnancy problem. There's no indication it wouldn't have happened if she'd stayed home. But being in Mongolia complicated things -- she didn't speak the language and highly distrusted the health care system.

I haven't seen Jane Kramer's by-line for a very long time.

That's probably because she's 82. But she published something as recently as 2017. I've never paid much attention to her stuff because, again, too duty-ish. But I just opened a couple of pieces from her byline list at the magazine -- one about restaurants and one about Gloria Steinem, from 2016 and 2015.

[Jeff Wrangler]

It ran in November, 2013. I wouldn't have written a spoiler into something from an upcoming issue! But of course it's not so much the climax but the writing around it that makes it good. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/18/thanksgiving-in-mongolia

Is that how far behind you are in your magazines? 

[Re: Jane Kramer] That's probably because she's 82. But she published something as recently as 2017. I've never paid much attention to her stuff because, again, too duty-ish. But I just opened a couple of pieces from her byline list at the magazine -- one about restaurants and one about Gloria Steinem, from 2016 and 2015.

I think I remember her writing something about food somewhere in Europe, but I might have her confused with somebody else.

[serious crayons]

Is that how far behind you are in your magazines? 

  I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find that issue in one of my piles!

I think I remember her writing something about food somewhere in Europe, but I might have her confused with somebody else.

Yeah, I think she did do some food writing.