Innholdsfortegnelse for December 25, 2023 i The New Yorker

Ed Caesar (“Speed,” p. 50), a contributing staff writer, most recently published “The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest.” Julia Wertz (“Return to the City,” p. 40), a cartoonist, is the author of the graphic memoir “Impossible People.” David Freedlander (The Talk of the Town, p. 10) is a contributor to New York magazine and Politico. Lily Geller (Cryptic Crossword, p. 35) began constructing puzzles in 2020 and has been published in the newsletter “The Browser.” Fred Piscop (“Track Maintenance,” p. 34) is the former editor of the Washington Post Magazine Sunday cross-word and of the USA Today daily crossword. Ali Fitzgerald (“Vanishing Panels,” p. 64), an artist and a writer, began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016. She currently writes the monthly comic…

An exceptional Thai restaurant has slipped into a sleepy block of Carroll Gardens. UnTable, opened by the talented thirty-nine-year-old chef Aun Kampimarn, in September, in a charming tin-ceilinged room, exudes cheerful, unpretentious vibes, while serving elegant, modern iterations of classic Thai combinations. The restaurant’s earnest intention can be found both in its name—“Un,” a variation of Aun, signals the chef’s unconventional approach to Thai cuisine—and in a poem on Instagram by Meen Srisopa, a co-owner, that ties the cricket sounds of Kampimarn’s childhood to a Chilean-sea-bass recipe that incorporates a tomato sauce reminiscent of his grandmother’s. Kampimarn—who grew up in Udon Thani, in northeast Thailand, and came to the U.S. thirteen years ago—once cooked at the highly praised Somtum Der, in Red Hook, but it was with the pre-service family…

“… Ha!” You’re at a cocktail party and someone just made a reference to the Kenneth Lonergan play “This Is Our Youth” that you didn’t find particularly funny, but you still want everyone to know that you understood it. “Haha” Your best friend teases you about your small feet—something that you’re actually insecure about—but it’s totally O.K. Yep, for sure. “Hahahahahahahahahaha” Your seven-year-old niece is telling you a twenty-minute knock-knock joke that makes absolutely zero sense. “Haha?” You’re at a comedy show and your sister’s boyfriend, Darren, is half-way through his tight five about how he hates his relationship, but then you look at your sister and she’s laughing. “Haha … ha” Your bodega guy shares some piping-hot unsolicited political takes on the war in Ukraine that you brush off…

You took a wrong turn in the Ramble, and now you’re caught in a labyrinth of twisting paths, cursing the name of Frederick Law Olmsted. Solve the puzzle to get your bearings—and to reveal the caption to the cartoon on the opposite page. Answers fit into the grid in two ways: Rows and Paths. Each Row contains two answers, side by side, which span the width of the grid and are clued in order. Each Path answer will begin in one of the yellow circles and follow that Path to its end. The length of each Path answer is noted after its clue; this will help you determine which answer goes with which Path. When the grid is filled, the sixteen letters that are not part of a Path will…

In early September, La Zambra, a five-star golf resort near Málaga, in southern Spain, hosted a jamboree for an organization called the Supercar Owners Circle. At the event, wealthy car enthusiasts—almost exclusively men—gathered to show off their vehicles, gawp at other people’s, and drive the mountainous roads of Andalusia faster than was strictly legal. The gathering, which took place over a long weekend, was by invitation only. Admission, along with room and board, cost about nine thousand dollars. “Only the most prestigious and uncompromising supercars of past and present are eligible,” the club’s Web site warned. “The final decision lies with the admission board, which consists of both S.O.C. members and external automotive specialists.” On the Thursday evening that I arrived at La Zambra, in an Uber, the parking lot…

On a wet afternoon in late September, Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, delivered her inaugural address. Gay, who had previously been the dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said that knowledge is best served “when we commit to open inquiry and freedom of expression as foundational values of our academic community,” adding that a diversity “of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives” enables “the learning that happens when ideas and opinions collide.” The past several years, of course, have seen an erosion of academic freedom. From book bans to the notion that offensive ideas make one unsafe, both the right and the left have participated in curtailing open inquiry. As dean, Gay built a reputation for prizing the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which…

Last month, Vulfpeck, the indie-indie funk band that operates under its own label—it books the gigs, does the publicity, sells the tickets—held a residency in Brooklyn, eight peppery shows at the Avant Gardener, jammed into four days. “I was mentally prepared for burnout to the degree that this could make or break the band,” Joe Dart, the bassist, said, when it was over. Instead: success. Everyone felt rejuvenated, at least spiritually. Still, necks hurt, throats tickled, even well-calloused fingers had blisters. (“A lot of sixteenth notes,” Dart said.) Monday, the band members who hadn’t dispersed slept. Tuesday, they schvitzed. Dart, the enthusiastic one, was waiting at the Russian and Turkish Baths, on East Tenth Street—the place with the feuding co-owners. (It was Boris’s day.) Dart sat with his bass in…

It’s the end of the year—our annual opportunity to fill the magazine’s vaunted pages with nonsense and mischief, starting with this present-day New York City street scene. A stroll down any block in town can occasion a double take or two—the boom-box-wielding unicyclist, the elegant lady walking her pet ferret—but this intersection seems particularly kooky. There are at least nineteen things amiss; can you spot them all? (Find the solution to this puzzle and all the others in the issue beginning on page 86.) ANSWER KEY Here are the nineteen unusual things we spotted in this image: 1 An elephant is pulling the horse-drawn carriage. 2 One of the passengers in the carriage is a horse. 3 The bus lane is labelled “BOATS ONLY.” 4 The “NO PARKING” street-cleaning sign…

On each of the tracks in the grid on the opposite page, running across and down, two pairs of letters are provided to get you started. Fill in the missing letters so that each track spells out two words, which differ only by the provided letter pairs. Example: Every word in the puzzle will be a common, lowercase vocabulary word. (In the example above, the blank spaces on the track are filled in with the letters S, T, and P, to create the words STUMP and STRAP.) There may be multiple ways to fill in a given track, but only one option will make the entire subway system run smoothly.…

SEASONS GREETINGS At this Holiday Season we feel a deep sense of appreciation of your good will through our business association during the year that is past. Excelsior Exterminating & Mfg. Co. New York, N.Y. —Christmas card. You might spread a little frankin-cense around, if you want. WANT single, immaculate, lower 5th Av., private family; reasonable. D 491 Times. —Adv. in the Times. You’ll tire of them, mark our words. $150 Reward. Bracelet, platinum setting, single row diamonds, lost Nov. 13, between Town Hall, upper 5th Av., 57th St. and Park Av., in Best’s, taxi or on train to Irvington, N.Y.—Adv. in the Times. In short, lost. Seven Long Island City girls have drawn the specifications of an “ideal husband.” In order of importance, they believe that a husband should…

Most days, Donald Trump is not required to appear at the civil fraud trial for the suit brought against him by Letitia James, the New York attorney general. Yet there he sits, the former President—a permanent scowl on his face directed at the American judicial system—flanked by his lawyers, all of whom seem awestruck at the strange turn that their careers have taken. But if you squint and look just beyond the defendant, there is another regular figure in the gallery, a man with close-set eyes, wearing a dress shirt and smiling broadly. It is Allen Roskoff, the head of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, a small L.G.B.T.Q. political group based in the Village. Roskoff, always seated in the front row, is familiar to anyone who has aspired to…

ACROSS 1 Quadruple, say | Triple, say | Double, say4 Barn inhabitant | Symbol of foolishness | Mouse hunter7 Time in office | Time at school | Time for bed11 ___ Tuesday (Christian holiday) | Silvery hair color | Baseball-bat material12 Asks, as a softball question | Brain sections | They may go over a tennis player’s head14 Cookie with a Swedish Fish flavor | Cookie with a Candy Corn flavor | Cookie with a Crest Toothpaste flavor15 Name that’s an anagram of a music genre | One of the Three Musketeers | “Calvin and Hobbes” bully16 One staying put | Rejected name for Ms. magazine | First name in abolitionism18 Shut up, with “it” | Put under a seat, say | Out in the open20 Speedy critters | Subjects…

Light up the tree! The front porch, too!Let reindeer’d Santa, shiny-new,Blink off and on upon the rooftop,From rosy cheek to tiny hoof-top.Here’s Chevy Chase to plug him in;Wow, that looks great! And so beginThe joyous rounds of raucous greetingsCustomary at these meetings.Shawn Fain, of the U.A.W.,We hope it will not too much trouble youIf we aver our admirationMingled with a strong elationAt your uplifting win. You rule!What you all did was extra cool.Three cheers for Teamster Sean O’Brien,Whose coolness likewise we’re implyin’.Lisa Takeuchi Cullen,We are now happily mullin’How we will praise your W.G.A. EastAt our impending solstice feast,And shout “Brava!” for bold Fran Drescher,SAG-AFTRA graceful under pressure.Our salutations list is long,And filled with a distinguished throng:Flaco the Owl, of Central Park,“To-whoo” the herald angels hark,We wish him nights of happy…