omg you're blowing my mind over here
― raw feel vegan (silby), Thursday, 19 April 2012 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
that's what harper's tries to be
― the acquisition and practice of music is unfavourable to the health of (abanana), Thursday, 19 April 2012 19:45 (twelve years ago) link
true but half of Harper's pieces are dire leftist jeremiads which I don't need much of in my life.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Thursday, 19 April 2012 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
harpers word thingies are like way too hard
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 April 2012 20:03 (twelve years ago) link
wow the gopnik thing on nostalgia is just
I thought of like 20 counter-examples to his *theory* in the time it took me to read it.
but just imagine the aughts without the arctic monkeys
― High powered Texas lawyer (symsymsym), Thursday, 19 April 2012 23:09 (twelve years ago) link
hope they're still alive to reap the rewards in 40 years
― mookieproof, Thursday, 19 April 2012 23:16 (twelve years ago) link
the wave of arctic monkeys-pastiche bands
― High powered Texas lawyer (symsymsym), Friday, 20 April 2012 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
Remember the vogue for depression nostalgia in the 1970s?
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 April 2012 01:38 (twelve years ago) link
sheesh that wolcott takedown is endless. like bashing someone in the head long after they are dead.
― scott seward, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:51 (twelve years ago) link
yessss
― mookieproof, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:54 (twelve years ago) link
that gopnik 40 year thing...i just couldn't even penetrate the levels of incomprehensibility. i kept staring at random paragraphs and couldn't bring myself to start at the beginning and read it all the way through. i felt like a puzzled arctic monkey sniffing a rotten banana. i kinda want to pick it up....but no it's terrible don't do it!
― scott seward, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:55 (twelve years ago) link
otoh i am 40 and the spinners are grebt, so
― mookieproof, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/02/120402fa_fact_sedaris
really enjoyed this brief essay by david sedaris - kind of an andy rooney-like recounting of his experience with french health care that politely mocks the things we are used to and expect from our doctors and our health care system here.
― pleural eff u son (k3vin k.), Friday, 20 April 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link
I mean Shanana appeared at Woodstock. Happy Days ran from the mid 70s to the mid 80s. Bell-bottomed jeans made a comeback in the early 90s. Retro 80s stuff has been big for the last 10 years or so. Etc.
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 April 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
gonna dive into the long LBJ essay now
― pleural eff u son (k3vin k.), Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:02 (twelve years ago) link
This infidel is really enjoying this paywalled piece on the Hajj/Mecca: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/16/120416fa_fact_peer
This bit in particular is o_O:
In 1924, days after the soldiers of al-Saud, inspired by the teachings of the puritanical preacher Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, conquered Mecca, the destruction of buildings associated with the life of the Prophet and his companions began. Wahhabis believe that revering structures with ties to the Prophet can lead to idolatrous practices. The house of Muhammad's wife Khadijah was destroyed, and the Saudis used the Prophet's birthplace as a cattle market before it was turned into a library, in the early nineteen-fifties. [...] The house of Abu Bakr, the closest companion of the Prophet and the first caliph, was buried under a Hilton hotel.
― Trienne of Barf (Leee), Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
There actually was one, with The Sting; Paper Moon; and the various post-Bonnie and Clyde films like Boxcar Bertha etc.
― Josefa, Saturday, 21 April 2012 06:48 (twelve years ago) link
gun control piece was my fave this week
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:38 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I thought it was ok but could have been done better. The stuff on the history of the second amendment, the NRA etc. is very well done, but I thought she could have made the case for gun control a little better than "here are some examples of shootings." Some of the descriptions of guns were also so martian-visiting-earth that I pictured a conservative gun advocate reading them and laughing.
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Monday, 23 April 2012 15:37 (twelve years ago) link
I mean I didn't think even the New Yorker's key demographic need explanations like this: "A revolver holds a number of bullets in a revolving chamber, but didn’t become common until Samuel Colt patented his model in 1836."
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Monday, 23 April 2012 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
I thought some of the subtle cues were well-done like letting the faucet run for a long time after shooting etc.
― dayo, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:12 (twelve years ago) link
i don't really know much about guns or gun control so ymmv i guess. but mainly i liked the stylistic mix of really dry factual/historical writing with the occasional writerly line, it was a very readable piece.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
> like letting the faucet run for a long time after shooting etc.
I thought that was not subtle at all, actually.
The parts about gun ownership as a percentage of individuals declining (from 50% to 20%) over time while the number of guns in circulation increased was interesting. Also, the part about Yemen having the second highest rate of gun ownership -- and that rate being 1/2 of the US -- kinda blew my mind.
I would have thought there could be more to say about the influence gun industry in the NRA than the decrease from that of otherwise reasonable sportsmen. Seems to me that the NRA has become a marketing/propaganda/scare group instead of actual gun owners. Like, despite all indications otherwise, the line has become "the government is going to take away your gun -- you must buy more." Mass marketing to paranoid, anti-government types seems like a really bad idea, but I guess if you're livelihood depends on it, you gotta do what you gotta do.
― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 23 April 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I think the fact that gun ownership is more and more a crazy old white guy thing is important
― iatee, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
the raw milk article has me wondering if it's the 1st time the phrase "bathtub cheese" has been printed in the nyer
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
i keep thinking abt how that guys say raw milk and blood tastes just like ice cream
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
that is a startling fact
― Lamp, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
Two sort of complimentary things I learned from recent New Yorker articles that I probably should have known but did not:
1) The ANC's struggle to end apartheid was extremely violent, and2) Bob Marley's appeals to love and peace were backed up by his actual political peacemaking, unlike the frat guys who sing redemption song on their stoops
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
well sometimes they make peace w/ other frats
― iatee, Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:45 (twelve years ago) link
and nerds
― "in this super-sexy postracial age" (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 26 April 2012 14:58 (twelve years ago) link
i watched part of marley last night
― lag∞n, Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
would watch, based on that review
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
its p good, cool facts
― lag∞n, Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:38 (twelve years ago) link
rita marley i like
― lag∞n, Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
the new yorker comments on its use of the diaeresis:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/04/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis.html(more like diarrhesis, am i right, guys?)
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 26 April 2012 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
wasn't jose canseco recently asking about diaeresis?
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Thursday, 26 April 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
ends with an esis...
― "in this super-sexy postracial age" (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 26 April 2012 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
Elif Batuman alert!
― Pot Leeedom (Leee), Sunday, 6 May 2012 23:58 (twelve years ago) link
the women's boxing article was great
― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 May 2012 01:34 (twelve years ago) link
Feel like a bad Jew for getting drowsy every time I see another "Obscure Jews of X" article
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 01:37 (twelve years ago) link
you're not alone. in fact: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2009/12/jewspotting.html
― Mordy, Monday, 7 May 2012 01:44 (twelve years ago) link
haha
and to be fair, it's mostly Jews responsible for all the Jewspotting. My dad is an incorrigible Jewspotter!
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 01:50 (twelve years ago) link
I was pretty surprised about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_China
― dayo, Monday, 7 May 2012 01:51 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah. Nice to see Ariel Levy get to report on something that afforded her the opportunity to exercise some nice prose styling, too.
― Pot Leeedom (Leee), Monday, 7 May 2012 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/CVC_TNY_05_21_12_no_date.jpg
― o s– man (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:21 (eleven years ago) link
(http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/05/cover-story-spectrum-of-light.html)
― o s– man (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 11 May 2012 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
Really liked the piece on the (possibly) hidden Indian palace treasure. Also liked the surprisingly lite piece on drones, which approached the subject with a note of absurdity tempering the awe.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 11 May 2012 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
enjoyed the piece on clayton christensen
― balls, Saturday, 12 May 2012 02:02 (eleven years ago) link
The treasure piece was good but felt either somewhat underresearched or somewhat badly written and i couldn't tell which
― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 12 May 2012 04:04 (eleven years ago) link
A little of both? Actually, it seemed kind of tall-tale elliptical, like it was writing around a big secret it knew from the start it would never reveal.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 12 May 2012 04:45 (eleven years ago) link