found drama

For this past Secular Humanist December Holiday, my lovely wife got me a subscription to The New Yorker.  It has been quite a delight.  A fun, erudite little magazine ¹ that is as substantive as it is ephemeral, as sexy as it is straight-laced, as secular as it is… Jewish.  At any rate:  we’re enjoying it ² but I don’t believe either of us were prepared for just how often it comes, just how much reading it funnels into the house.  Needless to say, I’ve got a back-log of articles and stories going back almost two months now.  The highlight reel:

• “Baby Food” by Jill Lepore (January 19, 2009)
• “The Ponzi State: Florida’s foreclosure disaster” by George Packer (February 9 & 16, 2009)
• “Brother on Sunday” by A. M. Homes (March 2, 2009)
• “Wiggle Room” by David Foster Wallace (March 9, 2009)

…plus that David Sedaris piece in the issue that just arrived.  I’ve taken to folding over the covers to expose the pages of these articles, to leaving them conspicuously “out” on the counter.  But they go unread for so long.  And then the next one arrives and I just barely make it through “Briefly Noted” before…  The cycle repeats itself.  What have I gotten myself into?

1. How many other periodicals publish the word as “reëvaluate”?[↩]
2. At least I know that I’m enjoying it.[↩]

About Rob Friesel