Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “The Kindest Cut,” Larissa MacFarquhar looks at the reasons that some people decide to donate organs to total strangers. “Does it seem crazy, giving something that precious to someone for whom you have no feeling, and whom, if you knew him, you might actually dislike?” she asks.
In “Cocksure,” Malcolm Gladwell looks at the concept of overconfidence and the role that it played in the recent economic crisis. “Wall Street is a confidence game, in the strictest sense of that phrase,” he notes: a delicate balance must be maintained between inspiring others’ confidence in your firm and being delusionally self-assured.
In “Renaissance Man,” Rebecca Mead profiles the recently appointed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Campbell. Although he is an expert in Renaissance tapestries and curated two successful and ambitious shows at the Met over the past ten years, “Campbell did not strike anyone as a director in the making” before his appointment last year, Mead writes.
In Comment, Jeffrey Toobin examines the significance of the questions posed and answers given at last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Sonia Sotomayor.
In the Financial Page, James Surowiecki explains how fiscal federalism stands in the way of reversing the economic downturn.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Andy Borowitz imagines Britney Spears’s diary entries during her conversion to Judaism.
Calvin Trillin recounts the story of the 2008 murder of three teenagers at an outdoor swimming hole in rural Michigan.
There is a late-night sketchbook by Barry Blitt.
Nicholas Lemann looks at the history of K.G.B. activity in America.
Joan Acocella traces Michael Jackson’s evolution as a dancer and recalls some of his most memorable moves.
Anthony Lane reviews Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and In the Loop.
There is a short story by Kirstin Valdez Quade.