Click on the cartoon to enlarge it! Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Annals of Cartography: Will Google Incorporate Broadway Closure?
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Pedestrians, beware iPhone-bearing out-of-town drivers: Checking in on Google Maps’ driving directions, it seems like one is still instructed to plow through the parts of Broadway recently closed to vehicles.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: The Rotarian
“Cartoon inspired by Jorge Colombo’s artwork.”:http://emdashes.com/2009/05/of-pixels-and-pastels-new-york.php
Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
Mastery of Syntax Fuels Apparent “Michael Jordan of Captioners”
Martin Schneider writes:
I was tickled by Steve Johnson’s post at the Chicago Tribune‘s website on Larry Wood, who has now won the New Yorker Caption Contest for the third time.
Here are Wood’s previous two victories. (Hat tip to David Marc Fischer’s indispensable Blog About Town.)
Reading between the lines, it seems that economical wording is key to the Chicago attorney’s success. Johnson quotes Caption Contest honcho Robert Mankoff that “Wood’s was clearly the best worded of several submissions that went after the same basic joke.”
Also noteworthy is the news that every week, Farley Katz, who administers the contest, “culls through the submissions, catagorizes [sic] them by type of joke.” It hadn’t really occurred to me that so many people would coincide on their jokes every week, but it does make sense.
Even readers with exceptional eidetic memory will probably need reminding that Wood is an Emdashes reader. Congratulations, Lawrence—or may I call you Larry?
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: The Deals of the World Are a Constant Quantity
Read John Lahr’s New Yorker “review”:http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2009/05/18/090518crth_theatre_lahr of “Waiting for Godot,” which is back on Broadway.
Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
New Yorker Fiction Podcast Continues on its Royal Way
Benjamin Chambers writes:
On the eve of the release of The New Yorker’s fiction issue, it seems like the right time to mention (again) how amazing the magazine’s fiction podcasts are. Back in January, I reviewed the 2008 podcasts and even threw in a plug for this year’s reading by Thomas McGuane of James Salter’s chilling story, “Last Night.”
Now there’s three more treats waiting for the unwary:
- First, there’s Joyce Carol Oates reading Eudora Welty’s searing “Where Is that Voice Coming From?” from the July 6, 1963 issue. To my mind, Oates’ Yankee accent can’t do Welty justice, but the narrative’s acid power still leaks through. If it drives listeners to read the story on their own, then the podcast will have done its job.
- I’ve not read much Isaac Bashevis Singer, so it was a special treat to hear Nathan Englander read Singer’s “Disguised,” from the September 22, 1986 issue, about a woman who searches for the man who inexplicably abandoned her only to find he’s taken up an unthinkable new life without her. A marvel of economy, the story’s simply delightful, and Englander’s reading enhances it.
- After a great performance last September reading Stephanie Vaughn’s “Dog Heaven” from January 1989, Tobias Wolff returned to read another classic (albeit better-known): “Emergency,” by Denis Johnson, first published in the magazine on September 16, 1991 and later collected in Johnson’s book Jesus’ Son.
Bottom line: you can’t go wrong with any of these. Go forth and listen!