Been busy at the Alpine hacienda the last week or so, and I’ve been remiss in posting lately. Schemes “gang agley”:http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/mouse.html and all that. So here’s one of those omnibus posts everyone likes.
Wonderful to “see”:http://emdashes.com/2008/12/roger-angells-greetings-friend.php so “much”:http://emdashes.com/2008/12/banned-words-and-phrases-holid.php of “Emily”:http://emdashes.com/2008/12/more-good-news-because-we-need.php the last day or two! -Thx- Thanks for that unmistakable verve!
As Emily “reported,”:http://emdashes.com/2008/12/hooray-a-new-david-remnick-boo.php David Remnick will write a book on Barack Obama. It will be his first book that isn’t a compilation or an edited work since he took over as _New Yorker_ editor in 1998. _That_ is a big deal. And, of course, good news!
How very nice to see an abstract cover on the magazine’s big year-ender.
David Fincher’s newest movie, _The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,_ based on an unlikely F. Scott Fitzgerald story, appears to be a stunner. On the subject of making movies of Fitzgerald stories, has anyone considered adapting “The Jelly-Bean”? On a road trip many, many years ago, I listened to “Dylan Baker”:http://www.amazon.com/Stories-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0694524468 marvelously reproduce the lazy Southern rhythms of the story (it’s set in Georgia), and I think it might work on the big screen. It’s nothing like _The Great Gatsby,_ which apparently is also true of _Button._ Anyone agree or disagree, or have other candidates?
Oh, and how do people feel about the new adaptation of Richard Yates’s novel _Revolutionary Road_? I don’t think I could bring myself to watch such depressing material, honestly. I had the same problem with Zoë Heller’s _Notes on a Scandal_; the book was excellent, but I was not able to finish the movie.
I wanted to mention a swell new blog, “Daily Routines,” an ongoing compilation of passages from writers discussing their daily routines. It cites _The New Yorker_ about as much as any other source. I am a sucker for this sort of thing, interviews with artists, honest discourse on the process….
Sigh. I suspect (fear) that “The Transition” podcast is so named because they’ll be putting the “Campaign Trail” in hiatus until there is an actual, you know, campaign under way. I trust that Ryan Lizza will be able to find plenty to occupy him in Obama’s first year.
I’ve recently taken up cooking. (Until now I have always been strictly a microwave chef.) So when is _The New Yorker_ going to come out with a cookbook, anyway?