Results tagged “newyorker”

For almost four decades, Carolyn Klass toiled in a lab at Cornell University identifying insects. For a $25 dollar fee, people from all over the world would send her pests they wanted identified, and in recent years business was booming because of the bedbug renaissance. Klass would examine each specimen and reply back with a thoughtful note, such as: more ›

Last week, Justice A. Kirke Bartley was caught using a placard to circumvent parking meters while off-duty. Now this week's The New Yorker reports on the "dashboard diva" wars. (You need a subscription to read full article here) Ground zero is Brooklyn Heights, where one "female executive" is so fed up she keeps a detailed log of the parking habits of placard abusers to aid in a letter-writing campaign. She described a recent interaction with one such abuser: "One day, she confronted a woman and her mother, who were getting into an illegally parked black sedan with medical license plates, which often had a placard in the window. 'I said, 'How do you like your parking space?' the executive recalled. 'And she said, 'I went to school for many years and worked very hard for this.' And I said, 'For a parking space?' And she said, 'Yes.' And her mother said to her, 'Close the window!' " more ›

The Observer has compiled a list to compile a masthead for the New Yorker's massive staff, though noting, "Keep in mind that because of the unique, internal logic of the magazine, job titles are a strange thing—someone who may be a staff writer may have only contributed a single piece in the last few years." Gawker did some counting: "Total Number of 'Critics': 11; Total Number of Staff Writers: 66(!); Total Number of 'Editors' of One Sort or Another: 31..." The New Yorker has been generally exempt from Conde Nast's cost-cutting. more ›

The gloves are off! Brazilian paper O Globo is angry that the New Yorker of published an article about crime and drugs in Rio just days before the International Olympic Committee decides the location of the 2016 summer games. This comes the day after former New Yorker coverboy President Obama flew to Copenhagen on behalf of the Chicago 2016 bid. However, besides the gang violence, Rio may not have the financial capacity to host the games as it recently had to cancel several international swimming events. Whatever, the New Yorker is probably just bitter that we didn't get the bid for 2012, right? more ›

Artist Jorge Colombo has impressed many with his drawings created on his iPhone (by way of the Brushes application. Now, his drawing of a 42nd Street hot dog stand is this week's New Yorker cover. Colombo tells the New Yorker he "painted" the cover while standing outside Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum for an hour. more ›

After over 70 years serving as both a source for top-notch instruments and a hang-out for musicians between gigs, Manny's Music on "Music Row" (West 48th Street) is said to be going out of business soon. Among other famous clients, Jimi Hendrix bought many of his guitars there, and Ringo Starr got the Ludwig drum set used in the Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” appearances from Manny’s. The New Yorker recently spent a few hours palling around with Manny's cantankerous owner Henry Goldrich (son of Manny), and musicians John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful), Tom Chapin, and Leslie West (the Vagrants). As if to illustrate the signature "thinly veiled hostility" of Manny's staff, Goldrich quickly instructed West, "Get out of my face. Seriously. You’re bothering me." And when West asked Henry if he ever played an instruments, he replied, "I played cash register." Though it's still not quite clear if the fat lady has indeed sung at Manny's, workers are busy scanning all the hundreds of publicity photographs of musicians that line the store’s walls, which will be preserved on a website called Manny’s Virtual Wall. And here's video of the visit. more ›

Earlier today, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles used his Twitter feed to pass along a juicy bit of gossip about The New Yorker: "Frequent contributor tells me the New Yorker is considering switch to biweekly or monthly. Recession pains." Charles wasn't the first to speculate about this, but his twist (twittst?) caught fire amongst the Twitteratti, and it seemed plausible enough, given Conde Nast's recent layoffs. more ›

Tomorrow will mark Alex Rodriguez's first time answering questions in public from anyone outside of ESPN's Peter Gammons since news broke that he tested positive for steroids in 2003. The Yankees have scheduled a press conference for A-Rod at their spring training facilities in Tampa's Steinbrenner Field tomorrow. more ›

In its roundup of the top ten media blunders of 2008, Politico's Michael Calderone puts the New Yorker "Politics of Fear" cover at #8 (between the mainstream media's reluctance to acknowledge the National Enquirer's reports of John Edwards' affair and how VP guessing was out of control). Calderone writes, "The Zabar’s set were in on the joke. But some didn’t see the humor in the illustration of Barack and Michelle Obama sharing a terrorist fist-jab and dressed, respectively, as a Muslim and Angela Davis-style black radical, with an Osama bin Laden painting on the mantle and an AK-47 leaning against the fireplace, in which burned the American flag." But he adds that, after the uproar, things ended up okay: "[New Yorker writer] Lizza and editor David Remnick — whose excellent piece on Obama in the same issue was largely overlooked in the ensuing dustup — are working on books dealing with Obama." Plus, Obama won. more ›

This week Frank Bruni at the Times criticizes Corton, the new Tribeca restaurant helmed by enfant terrible chef Paul Liebrandt. Others at Time Out and NY Mag have raved, and Bruni's praise isn't exactly muted either: "At Corton [Liebrandt] calms down and wises up, accepting that an evening in a restaurant shouldn’t be like a visit to a fringe art gallery: geared to the intellect, reliant on provocation. It needn’t demand raptness. And it must, in the course of whatever else it means to accomplish, leave a person eager for the next bite and intent on the one after that." Makes sense, three stars. more ›

The Times tagged along with the New Yorker's Calvin Trillin for his "gastronomic walking tour" through Chinatown and Little Italy on Sunday, as part of the magazine's eponymous festival. The $100 tickets sell out instantly every year because the event is limited to just 35 nerds—er, gourmands—with money to burn. Trillin led participants on an erudite eating tour of his favorite little haunts on the two mile stroll. Among other revelations, he said he likes to eat standing up. And he doesn't care about restaurant reviewing: "If I couldn’t eat in a four-star restaurant again, it would mean nothing to me. But if someone said I couldn’t eat any more cilantro, I would be very upset." Also, the greatest development in American cuisine according to Trillin? No, not the Turducken; it's the Immigration Act of 1965, which allowed more third world immigrants. more ›

There was a time when one might have been surprised to find an article about, say, Girl Talk nestled within the fussy pages of The New Yorker. But for years now Sasha Frere-Jones, the magazine's pop music critic, has been broadening the magazine's appeal with his perceptive and funny observations on everything from Radiohead to Coldplay. (Ha.) (See also: Miscegenation.) Jones is also that rare breed of critic who actually creates in his field of interest; his band Ui has been a presence in the downtown avant-rock scene since 1990. more ›

Remember that New Yorker cover satirizing right wing scaremongering about Barack Obama and his wife Michelle? It was a big deal for a couple days over the summer, way back during those Halcyon days before the economic collapse drove us out here to these abandoned condos on the West Side where we survive on acid rain water and squab. Oh, right, that has happened (yet). In the meantime, let's have a laugh with the new cover of Entertainment Weekly, which features Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart recreating that controversial illustration. more ›

The New Yorker has a characteristically sprawling profile piece on Alec Baldwin in this week's issue, and the 30 Rock star is characteristically candid about life, his career, and his future. Or, as his brother William puts it, “There’s always something for him to fucking whine about.” Indeed, the profile, titled "Why Me?", is chock full of Baldwinning quotes. more ›

The political news cycle yesterday was dominated by the controversy surrounding this week’s New Yorker cover; called “The Politics of Fear,” it depicts Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as America-hating radical terrorists gloating in the Oval Office. New Yorker editor David Remnick, who celebrates his tenth anniversary helming the magazine with this issue, spent the day making the interview rounds and getting some great publicity for the magazine; speaking to Wolf Blizter on CNN, he defended the cover as “Colbert in print.” more ›

Barack Obama’s campaign spokesman Bill Burton is calling this week’s New Yorker cover art “tasteless and offensive.” The illustration by Barry Blitt depicts the Illinois senator in the Oval Office wearing traditional Muslim garb while doing a “terrorist fist jab” with his wife Michelle, who is dressed in fatigues, with an Afro and an AK-47 slung over her shoulder. To complete the scene, there’s a portrait of Bin Laden over the fireplace, in which an American flag is ablaze. more ›

Stone (who may or may not have left a rude voicemail on Spitzer's dad's phone calling Eliot a "phony, psycho piece of s---") has previously claimed credit for helping tip off the feds about Spitzer. Now he explains in much more detail how he figured out a "hot blonde" hooker had met with Spitzer. Excerpts of NYer article, via Page Six:

"She told me she had a very high-end clientele - she kept using the word 'high-end' - athletes, international businessmen, politicians . . . then she said, 'I almost had a date with Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New Jersey.' She didn't know much about politics. So I asked her, 'Did this guy have a beard?' [like whiskered Jon Corzine]." more ›

Cartoonist Harry Bliss has been drawn into a bit of controversy over at the New Yorker because his illustration for last week’s cartoon caption contest (right) is the spitting image of a Marvel comic book cover from 1962 (left). Bliss’s editors were seemingly unaware of the resemblance, and no credit was given to the original, inked by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. And yes, life is now imitating Seinfeld episode #169, in which The New Yorker publishes a Ziggy cartoon inadvertently plagiarized by “some charlatan” (Elaine). more ›

Has anyone else out there found their New Yorker subscription arriving later and later in the week? We're pitifully elated if it's in our mailbox before Thursday, and on more than one occasion it hasn’t even been delivered until the following week. Sure, there's content online, but you can't bring that on the subway! more ›

While a judge deliberates on whether Harry Potter superfan Steve Vander Ark and his publisher violated copyright law by producing a lexicon based on J.K. Rowling’s hit novels, the 50-year-old librarian has simply been trying to keep it together. This week he told the New Yorker all about the trauma caused by the recent trial, during which he broke down in tears. more ›

Last week, the plight of production manager Nicholas White's 41-hour elevator ordeal at the McGraw-Hill building was detailed in the New Yorker. After a time-lapse video of his near-two days trapped in an elevator was put online, thousands of people have watched and shuddered at the thought of being in a similar situation, allowing media outlets to call it an "Internet sensation." more ›

Sure, it’s not as sexy as last week’s 11 page George Clooney spread (what is?), but the article on elevators by Nick Paumgarten in the current New Yorker makes for a fresh read. It begins with the story of one Nicholas White, a former production manager at Business Week who got stuck in an elevator at Rockefeller Center while at work one Friday night in October, 1999. White’s distressing tale is teased out as a counterpoint to Paumgarten’s exhaustive look at the state of elevator art: only after 7,800-plus words does he reveal White’s fate. more ›

more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child on Union St. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Wyatt St. in the Bronx, and a fatal car fire on the Long Island Expressway near College Point in Queens.
• Colombian immigrants celebrate their roots with rolling parties aboard buses known as chivas.
• Is the person doing Amazon.com product reviews for ski masks under the screen name "Ninja Thief" Staten Island's very own Ninja Burglar?
• New York Times critic Kelefa Sanneh is rumored to be heading to The New Yorker.
• A horse marching in the Queens St. Patrick's Day pararade yesterday bolted free from its handler and galloped into a crowd of spectators. Four people were injured.
• A woman with the unwieldy street name "Brooklyn's Reclusive Cat Woman Bank Robber" was arrested after returning most of the money she stole several years ago and attempting to apologize to the the bank.
• For the first time in its 31-year history, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was held in Brooklyn. First prize is $5,000 and a dictionary.
• Police arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn woman that occurred Saturday night.

Next Wednesday a cornucopia of comedians (Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Artie Lange and more) will gather at Town Hall for the The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation Comedy Benefit. Greg Fitzsimmons is one of the comedians responsible for putting together the show, which will raise awareness about meningitis (a disease that struck three people in his life, one of which was Gerry Red Wilson). You can buy tickets here. more ›

After a 16-year absence from the beauty pageant circuit, Miss Brooklyn returned this year -- which meant that maybe, just maybe, a Brooklynite would become Miss New York, or even Miss America. more ›

For two weeks in the winter of 2005, Central Park was filled with 7,500 saffron-paneled gates. The project was a gift from the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who had been trying for four decades to launch the project. Their struggle - and success - comes to the the small screen with tonight's premiere of The Gates on HBO. more ›

If you've perused the latest issue of the New Yorker, you may have noticed a rather long letter to the editor about a January cover (by Mark Ulriksen, pictured above). If you didn't, here's how the letter starts:

Mark Ulriksen’s “Winter Pleasures,” an impressionistic rendering of Grand Central Terminal’s main concourse, depicts the famous golden clock bathed in sunlight (Cover, January 28th). Note that this can be only an eastward morning scene, not a westward afternoon. The angle of the long axis of the concourse, following that of Manhattan’s east-west streets, is not 90° but 119° east of north, and aligns with the sun through its “west” windows only from late May to early July, and then only at an elevation of less than 3°. But aren’t those the south-side ticket windows at the left of the picture, with the tracks and trains therefore on the right? And doesn’t the clock seem to read three-fifty, hardly a time for the morning sun?

The Miss Brooklyn Pageant is coming back to town this coming Saturday after a 16-year absence from the scene (and they've returned in the MySpace age). The winner of the night will advance to the Miss New York Pageant, having a shot at becoming Miss America herself. more ›

more ›