Innholdsfortegnelse for December 26, 2022 i The New Yorker

On the afternoon of November 15th, a congressional intern in a suit and tie sprinted down a wing of the Capitol carrying a cardboard box with a slit on the top for paper ballots, then disappeared into an auditorium. Inside, the House Republican conference was electing its new leaders. This was the first of two votes. The second will come on January 3rd, on the floor of the House of Representatives. There still wasn’t a clear majority for either party, but it was likely that the Republicans would flip the chamber, and the winner of the voting would become the front-runner for Speaker, second in line for the Presidency. Dozens of journalists sat on the floor outside, preparing for a long afternoon. Two more staffers carrying ballot boxes ran past.…

A1. Which Upton Sinclair novel, whose one-word title ends in an exclamation point, inspired the 2007 film “There Will Be Blood”? A2. What is the common term for the upper part of a carapace? A3. In materials science, what adjective describes materials that are neither ductile nor malleable? Such materials fracture rather than deform in response to applied stresses. A4. On a Zoom call, what is the name of the layout in which participants are displayed in a rectangular grid of thumbnail images, as opposed to an enlarged view of the person speaking? B1. J. Robert Oppenheimer is the title character of a John Adams opera about the Manhattan Project, called “Doctor ____.” What word fills in the blank? B2. The plot of the novel “Left Behind,” which was co-written…

When Norman Mailer was inducted into the Army, in March, 1944, he was a freshly married twenty-one-year-old Harvard graduate, a slight young man of five feet eight inches and a hundred and thirty-five pounds. In the previous few years, he had published some stories and written a play and two novels (one of them published, in a typescript facsimile, as “A Transit to Narcissus,” in 1978). Even as a student, he thought of himself as a professional writer, and from the day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in December, 1941, he had wanted to write a big book about the war. He was sent for basic training to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where many of the men were from Pennsylvania, the South, and the Upper Midwest. Mailer was from middle-class…

IN THE CRISIS Elizabeth Kolbert, in her sweeping survey of climate change (“A Vast Experiment,” November 28th), makes a stimulating contribution to the national conversation about this challenge. I especially appreciated her discussion of the role of narratives in spurring (or stalling) action. As Kolbert points out, pessimistic narratives can be limiting. But, in the U.S., examples of making radical change to curb or adapt to the climate crisis are hard to come by. If we incorporated instances of progress into our story of the crisis, perhaps our culture would be more deeply engaged with transitioning to sustainable energy. One generative source of alternative narratives is Europe, where many communities, cities, and regions have taken transformative measures. Copenhagen, for example, has one of the world’s most successful district-heating systems, which…

Galactic broth visible light-years awayBrews the first suns. Familial, I feelI know these lights. I see their pre-bioticGeometries of purpose the way I impose Human, nearly literary intentionsOnto the microscopic animals, flexingBizarre mandibles, that patrol my eyelidsAnd guts. Brothers and sisters electronically Revealed, arcane mute dynasties of being:Darkling I too perform the turns and bitsOf my assigned proportions. FeigningRapt comprehension, I know you the way An infant pretends amazement each timeThe mother with a spoon tip searchingUnder the jar’s rim finds more and yetMore of the strained Apricots and Apples: Infant, the sunflower turns toward her, deepEgypt of shared attachment and concealment,Tangy preserved sweetness forging in turnThe courtly generation of—call it a soul.…

Each Row contains two consecutive answers reading left to right, except Rows A and L, which contain one answer apiece, reading across all nine wedges. Each Bagel contains a six-letter word or phrase that can start in any wedge, and can read either clockwise or counterclockwise. Bagel clues are grouped into three sections, which correspond with the three types of Bagels in the grid; the clues in each section are listed in order, from left to right and top to bottom. Solve the puzzle to reveal the cartoon’s caption, spelled out by the letters in wedges with dashed borders. ROWS A Justified by the circumstances B Obstinate scrivener in a Herman Melville short story Electronic-music genre that uses wobble bass C It connects the cerebrum to the spinal cord ___…

A puzzle worthy of Rowan and Martin. ACROSS 2 Winter Olympian stifles a giggle producing more “Insecure” (7)8 Wild reaction in extraordinary comeback (4)9 Belzer regularly read a book from the Old Testament (4)10 Being noted for his tongue, Arnett improvised around outskirts of Estonia (8)11 Popular shows inspiring joyful noise—they may contribute to a “ba-dum-tss”? (2-4)12 Rests or relaxes, creating “The White Lotus” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” among others (7)15 More than one “Instant Mom” episode needed to show intros (7)17 Vegas hotel performer Gilbert garners a guffaw (6)20 Dratch and I capably accommodated betting advantage (8)21 “Ni!” comes round full circle; that’s dope (4)22 Most of “Glee” covers “A Mighty Wind” (4)23 Uh… Ali G messed up new sketch show that aptly describes five of this puzzle’s…

1. I like this palace, / And willingly could waste my time in it. 2. Sweep on, you flat and greasy citizens. 3. If music be the flood of love, play on. 4. You shave such a February face. 5. If we shadows have offended, / Think but this and wall is mended. 6. Who chooseth me shall gain wheat many men desire. 7. Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowlers. 8. Do not these fair yokels / Become the forest better than the town? 9. To diet is to be banished from myself. 10. And run through fire I will for thy sweet shake. 11. Tell me where is fancy bread… 12. O, brave newt world / That has such people in ’t! 13. Cupid is a knavish…

The poet Robin Coste Lewis’s second collection, the exquisite “To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness” (Knopf), is a book about how the dead do not stay dead. Not only because the author believes, or wants to believe, that she can awaken the deceased with her pen—“I am trying to make the dead clap and shout,” she writes—but because those who are gone are determined not to stay put. Not in the heart, and certainly not in memory. In a sense, Lewis’s elegiac and haunted volume, filled with both words and photographs, found her long before she conceived it. Twenty-five years ago, Lewis was living in Rhode Island, teaching at Wheaton College and writing fiction. (She had received a B.A. from Hampshire College, where she compared African and South Asian diasporic…

BAGEL SHOP page 46 COVER CROSSWORD page 47 PATTERN RECOGNITION page 48 A1. “Oil!” A2. Shell A3. Brittle A4. Gallery B1. Atomic B2. Rapture B3. Maria B4. Dreaming C1. Reagan C2. Sinatra C3. Drew C4. Grace D1. Barclays Center D2. Baja California D3. Beverly Cleary D4. Birth control Connection A: Peanuts (All can follow “peanut” to make a familiar two-word phrase.) Connection B: Blondie (All are singles by the band Blondie.) Connection C: Nancy (All are surnames of famous Nancys.) Connection D: B.C. (All have the initials B.C.) Final Connection: “Peanuts,” “Blondie,” “Nancy,” and “B.C.” are all long-running newspaper comic strips. CRYPTIC CROSSWORD page 49 ACROSS 2 S(HA)KIER 8 ROAR (hidden rev.) 9 EZR + A (even letters of Belzer) 10 ANT(EA)TER (Arnett anag.) 11 HI-(HA)TS 12 RESORTS (anag.) 15…

The origami menagerie that graces the tree at the American Museum of Natural History (through Jan. 8) includes beetles, butterflies, and grasshoppers, in both a nod to the past and a preview of coming attractions. The museum’s holiday tradition dates back to the early seventies, when the entomologist Alice Gray began folding paper-bug ornaments for the staff. This year’s specimens are inspired by the insectarium and the butterfly vivarium opening, on Feb. 17, in the new Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. As ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. MUSIC “El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” CLASSICAL When American Modern Opera Company streamlined John Adams and Peter Sellars’s Christmas oratorio, “El Niño,” at the Cloisters, in 2018, it cut an hour of music, eliminated the chorus, and…

One more weirdly hot NovemberSlid us onward to December,Where, jubilant, we wait to greet you;Please stop by, we do entreat you!Meeting friends in actuality,And not in cyber irreality,Is pleasure heretofore unguessed at;Face-to-face is what we’re best at.This venue’s at-home lasts all day;The first one here, David Suchet,De-Lyfts in front with Roman Hrybov,Snake Island hero: bearing beef plov,To supplement our entrées (plural).Meanwhile, near some mountains (Ural),A guy named Roizman—grim occasion—Gets detained for saying “invasion.”And, speaking of, we gotta shout:Brittney Griner was just let out!To her, and to her wife, Cherelle,We’re glad she’s back at home, and well.Out, out, out, out, out, out, out—Out of that country! Out, no doubt!The YouTube maven Yury DudHas jetted here, and it’s so goodTo see him standing at our door.He’s in a crowd with Daniel Roher,Austin…

The clues in italics refer to the ups and downs of and on this issue’s cover. ACROSS 1 What is making en plein air 4 Boob tubes 7 Tom and Jerry, Sonny and Cher, and and , e.g. 9 Crying sound 10 What is taking, in the grid below 11 Heart’s desire 12 Any of several non-textual clues in this puzzle 14 Window-pane makeup 15 Nada 16 Spherical vegetables 17 Periphery 22 Piece of jewelry on a billboard 23 Vessel from which is pouring coffee 24 Vessel from which is drinking DOWN 1 The billboards, for example 2 Where you might be stuck 3 What has stubbed, in the grid below 5 Vessel holding ’s flowers 6 “I’m trying to draw in peace and quiet!” 8 Mishaps that may stain…

How about that Wordle? It’s great, right? Right?! I sure do love it. And each morning, when I’m done playing it, I move on to Nerdle, Quordle, Tradle, Heardle, Artle, and Framed. I’ll do anything to delay starting my day. I’ll admit that I get a little depressed after finishing my morning games. A profoundly sad feeling rises up from my gut as I desperately seek out new Wordle imitators. But I’ve found a solution. I realized that Wordle is everywhere, if you’re looking for it. My whole life is a guessing game now, and yours can be, too! PASSWORDLE Type your password in five tries or less! You are allowed one more incorrect guess before you are locked out of this game and your Amazon account. UBERDLE Correctly enter your…

The Grand Affair, by Paul Fisher (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). As one of the premier portraitists of the Belle Époque, John Singer Sargent lived a life befitting his status: garnering praise at the Paris Salon, painting such figures as Isabella Stewart Gardner and Teddy Roosevelt, and socializing with luminaries like Henry James and Oscar Wilde. But, as this sensitive biography makes clear, Sargent also pursued less socially acceptable interests; he had an abiding fascination with the male nude and was involved in intimate, somewhat ambiguous relationships with same-sex friends and models. Fisher wisely avoids making sweeping claims about Sargent’s sexuality, choosing instead to examine how “the protected and sanctioned camaraderie of the studio” enabled the painter’s art and social life to take on quietly unconventional forms. We Are Not One,…

“It’s our time, breathe it in,” the friends Frank (Jonathan Groff), Charley (Daniel Radcliffe), and Mary (Lindsay Mendez) sing ecstatically at the end of “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim’s much beleaguered musical about three artists and their deteriorating relationships and ambitions. Time in the musical goes backward: we first meet the trio during their lowest point (basically, their forties), so the youthful optimism of those last, hopeful lines is meant to sound false. In this “Merrily,” though, it rings sincere, as if claiming a long-delayed triumph on the musical’s behalf. Anticipation for the new production has been frantic. “I heard the whole run sold out in eight minutes,” someone whispered behind me at the New York Theatre Workshop, as we waited for the show to begin. “Merrily” has traditionally…