May 9 2011 issue

OK, will somebody please explain to me all the little mocking pictures (small line drawings, "filler") of Donald Trump in this issue? I count 12 of them. Memo to TNYer: Do you have even the faintest idea what New York would be without Donald Trump's money?

What would it be?

Detroit?

No actually, I was asking a serious question, and then I got snarky--sorry, my bad. Seriously, those of you who have been reading The NYer for a long time, is this normally what they do? Obviously, from the tenor of these drawings, they have no use for Trump and they meant to mock him. Do they do this with other people as well--and by "this" I mean multiple mocking images of the same person dispersed throughout the magazine.

>1 labwriter:

A much better place.

And it would still have the Bonwit Teller building. For the sin of destroying that building, he is damned for all eternity.

>4 lilithcat:. Well, if you're going to get sad over one New York lost building, then you're going to have to get in a very long line. An excellent book that covers just that subject: Lost New York by Nathan Silver, expanded and updated edition, published 2000.

Not to mention Chicago...and the crushing effect of new Trump building/dildo close to the Wrigley building et al.

That is a great book, the Nathan Silver I don't own it, but gloated over it at someone's house. Hmm. I'll have to look for it. A book I loved was The Meadowlands where one of the writer's odysseys was to see if he could find where PA. Station got dumped out there -- as well as the burial site of some big mobster.....

I know it's awful that great buildings get torn down -- I just got back from Sarasota where there is this giant hole still where the most amazing building, a hotel that was once as lavish and marvelous as anything, stood mouldering for decades and some clever wheeler-dealer finally got the edge and got the wrecking ball there. And now it's gone forever. Every time I drive by that place my blood pressure rises.

The thing is, though about the Trump type, a place as vital as NY is going to attract them. And live with the results. Good and bad, lots of both, really.

I love this idea -- btw of a thread per issue! It's brilliant!!!
Now all I have to do is catch up. But maybe I could start reading in a more timely way, nibbling at each end? (Maybe the cow will jump over the moon).

I finished May 16, in a manner of speaking. Don't know which article scared me more, the Pepsico or Afghanistan....not to mention Pakistan. I didn't care for the Ondaatje story, it seemed..... limp and utterly predictible. Plus I have a thing about using animals metaphorically or magically or in any way at all. Hepzibah is the founder of the Society for the Prevention of Literary Abuse of Animals or something like that.... can't remember.... or maybe I never fully worked that out.

I finally got my May 16 issue yesterday. I just read the PepsiCo article and it about made my head explode. "Nooyi {the current CEO} has a tendency to lift words from their natural context and repurpose them to suit the needs of PepsiCo" (p 56, bottom of 3rd column). The word "journey" as she later used it in the interview made me queasy (p 61, column 2). Ditto "aspirational" on page 71.

The article made an interesting point, that for some people, snacking has replaced eating meals. I thought about how we used to eat when we were kids in the 1950s. In our family we didn't snack. Period. We NEVER ate between meals, because snacking was something that would "spoil your dinner"--does anyone else have that tape running in their head, of Mom saying, "Don't eat that, you'll spoil your dinner"? Do moms even say that to their kids anymore? And will someone please tell me what the HECK vending machines are doing in the schools?

My Lord, this company is into everything: Tropicana, Gatorade, Quaker Oats, SoBe Lifewater, Naked smoothies. You can boycott Pepsi and Frito-Lay all day long, but chances are, even so, something you buy (and probably love eating) will be a PepsiCo product.

I found the discussion of the new kind of salt they're developing to be fascinating. The discussion of the robot fitted with human tastebuds was vaguely horrifying.

A couple of books that were mentioned: Food Politics by Marion Nestle, and Appetite for Profit, by Michael Simon.

The article made me want to resurrect my "whole foods" cookbooks from the 1970s.

So should we make a "May 16" issue thread here? I just noticed that we posted these comments under the "May 9" issue thread. I sort of like the idea of a thread for each issue, not that there couldn't be other threads as well--like "Joan Acocella articles," for example. Lucy, do you like her? I haven't read anything by her for years, but I notice there's something in the May 16 issue by her. She wrote a terrific article about Willa Cather years ago that she eventually turned into a small book--Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism, which I adored. She was very controversial in the Cather group, since her aim was to "rescue" Cather's work from the academics, but to their credit, they invited her to be a main presenter at one of the Cather colloquia (maybe the one in New York, I don't remember). Anywho, I was interested to see her review of Paula Fox and her books. I think I would be tempted to read Fox's memoir, Borrowed Finery.

Enough from me--bye for now.

I'm happy whichever way -- I had thought maybe we could have a monthly thread to post on (my tidying impulse??? Too many short threads otherwise..... oh help me!). And definitely -- for some writers a separate thread might also be quite useful -- Anyone else have an opinion? Whatever is easiest to keep track of.

Yes that Pepsico article is terrifying. Everything about it. I found myself looking at the Frito-Lay delivery truck unloading at the market with fascinated horror.......

We did have a 'tea-time' moment around four in the afternoon as dinner was rarely before 7:30. When parents had folks over for cocktails often you could raid a cheese and cracker tray or a bowl of nuts on the pretense of politely greeting people and passing the tray around but they didn't set out a lavish spread, just one or the other in moderation.

>10 labwriter:

Agree %100 that the Acocella piece on Cather was terrific. I've only read the magazine piece, not the expanded book version, but it captured both Cather and the larger cultural moment about how careerists talk about literature.

I follow the New Yorker only sporadically and it seems that Acocella writes mainly about dance...but when she turns her hand to literature, she can definitely hit a home run.

oh dear. Now I'm going to have to read that May 16th issue out of order (otherwise I'll be reading it in 2015!). LOL