The New Yorker
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PRICE $6.99 NOV. 18, 2013 Breguet, the innovator. Type XXII 10Hz, high-frequency chronograph A contemporary interpretation of the legendary Type XX supplied in 1960 to the French Naval Air Force, the Type XXII is the first series-produced mechanical chronograph to feature a regulating mechanism that oscillates at a frequency of 10Hz, enabling measurements to 1/20th of a second. This major technical innovation is made possible by the physical properties of silicon and the lighter weight of the escapement components, considerably enhancing the watchÕs regulating performance. History is still being written... BREGUET BOUTIQUES – NEW YORK FIFTH AVENUE 646 692-6469 – NEW YORK MADISON AVENUE 212 288-4014 BEVERLY HILLS 310 860-9911 – BAL HARBOUR 305 866-1061 – LAS VEGAS 702 733-7435 – TOLL FREE 877-890-0847 – WWW.BREGUET.COM BEGIN YOUR STORY NOVEMBER 18, 2013 Upgrade your Waldorf Astoria 7 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN experience with your ® 21 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Visa Signature card George Packer on the message of Election Day; Rylance and van Kampen; LifeCan; the new voice of NPR; wedding prep. ARIEL LEVY 26 THANKSgiving in mongolia An adventure and a heartbreaking loss. SIMON RICH 30 GUY WALKS inTo a BAR JOHN Colapinto 32 HOT gREASE Why used cooking oil is big business. PATRICK RADDEN Keefe 40 BUZZKILL How do you set up a legal market for pot? PETER HESsler 52 The BURIED Archeologists and looters after Tahrir. DAN Winters 62 The gRAY ghoST A portfolio of a New York apprenticeship. FICTION JEFFREY Eugenides 68 “FIND THE BAD gUY” Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort and part of THE CRITICS the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection BOOKS Nicholas Lemann 78 Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit.” 83 Briefly Noted pop mUSIC Sasha Frere-Jones 84 Katy Perry’s new album. The cURRENT cinema david Denby 86 “Nebraska,” “At Berkeley.” For a limited time, book through the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection POEMS Lia Purpura and receive a $50 Visa® gift card plus 36 “Future Perfect” lawrence joseph 70 “In a Post-Bubble Credit-Collapse 7 exclusive benefits — including free Environment” internet, daily breakfast and an upgrade* Adrian tomine COVER “Last Straw” Learn more and book at visasignaturehotels.com/waldorfastoria DRAWINGS Shannon Wheeler, Jack Ziegler, Joe Dator, Paul Noth, William Haefeli, Michael Crawford, Edward Koren, Sam Gross, Benjamin Schwartz and Marc Philippe Eskenazi, Farley Katz, *Terms & conditions apply Michael Maslin, Christopher Weyant, Robert Mankoff, Zachary Kanin, Drew Dernavich, Roz Chast © 2013 Hilton Worldwide SPOTS Victor Kerlow © 2013 Hilton Worldwide NEW YORK THE CHICAGO GRAND WAILEA STORIES THE BOULDERS BEGIN DUBAI ARIZONA BILTMORE HERE QASR AL SHARQ JERUSALEM PUERTO RICO SHANGHAI AMSTERDAM BEIJING ORLANDO ROME CAVALIERI BERLIN KEY WEST NAPLES PARK CITY PANAMA BOCA RATON RAS AL KHAIMAH THE CALEDONIAN LA QUINTA RESORT & CLUB TRIANON PALACE VERSAILLES THE ROOSEVELT NEW ORLEANS READ THE NEW SHORT STORY FROM SIMON VAN BOOY FEATURING OLGA KURYLENKO EXCLUSIVELY AT WALDORFASTORIA.COM / THESTORIES LOOK, NO VACUUM PUMP! CONTRIBUTORS BUTTON ariel levy (“thanksgiving in mongolia,” p. 26) has been writing for the magazine since 2008. patrick radden keefe (“Buzzkill,” p. 40) is a staff writer and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. george packer (comment, p. 21) has published eight books, including “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America,” a 2013 National Book Award finalist. dan winters (portfolio, p. 62) is an award-winning photographer whose new book, “Road to Seeing,” will be published in December. JOHN COLAPINTO (“hot grease,” p. 32), a staff writer, is the author of “As Nature Made Him” and “About the Author.” His next novel, “An Upright Man,” is due out in 2014. TIMER LIGHT peter hessler (“The buried,” p. 52) lives in Cairo. “Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West” is his most recent book. moises saman (photograph, p. 52), an associate member of Magnum Photos, is working on a book about post-revolution Egypt. His work is included in exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum and at the Harry Ransom Center, in Austin, Texas. jeffrey eugenides (fiction, p. 68), the author of, most recently, “The Marriage Plot,” a novel, is working on a collection of stories. lawrence joseph (poem, p. 70) has published five books of poetry, the most STOPPER recent of which is “Into It.” adrian tomine (cover) is a cartoonist and an illustrator. His latest book, “New York Drawings,” comprises ten years of his work for The New Yorker. thE NEW YORKER digitAL Now you can preserve red wine at the WWW.NEWYORKER.COM DIGITal EditiON touch of a button—and no need for a vacuum pump. Simply insert a Wine Preserver Stopper into the top of the FICTION CARTOONS AUDIO PORTFOLIO Podcast: Louise A daily drawing by Jeffrey Eugenides Photographs of bottle you want to preserve. Then Erdrich reads a Paul Noth, plus the reads his new story. New York City, by place the Rabbit Electric Wine story by Joyce Caption Contest. Dan Winters. Carol Oates. Preserver over the Stopper and press the button on top. A “Timer Light” tells you when you VIDEO DAILY COMMENT pOp MUSIC have achieved necessary vacuum. The Profiles and News analysis by Jeffrey Toobin, Sasha Frere-Jones Rabbit set includes the Electric Wine interviews, plus Hendrik Hertzberg, and other New Yorker on Katy Perry. Richard Brody’s staff writers. Preserver, two Wine Preserver DVD of the Week. Stoppers and batteries. Push-button wine preservation has arrived! At: Macy’s, Total Wine & More, World ARCHIVE PODCASTS slidE shOW POETRY Our complete Peter Hessler on Archeology in Lawrence Joseph Market, Dillard’s, Sur La Table, Spec’s, collection of issues, Egypt. Plus, the Egypt in the wake reads his new Bloomingdale’s, Sherry-Lehmann, back to 1925. Political Scene. of the revolution. poem. Gary’s, Wine Library, BevMo! Subscribers: Get our digital edition for tablets and phones at no extra charge at the App Store or from Google Play. THE MAIL A JUST PROFESSION continue into perpetuity unless “some- thing is done.” James B. Stewart, in his analysis of the Eric Laursen demise of the law firm Dewey & Le- 1Buckland, Mass. Boeuf, attributes the firm’s downfall, in part, to a culture that lacked coöper- IN THE CLASSIFIEDS ation and mutual respect (“The Col- lapse,” October 14th). I got to know As a former BBC journalist and the au- some of the principals of the LeBoeuf thor of a book on the assassination of firm in the nineteen-seventies, and John F. Kennedy, I found Adam Gopnik’s the change in attitude toward the essay on the conspiracy theories sur- practice of law since then, from a pro- rounding the event riveting (A Critic at fession emphasizing integrity and Large, November 4th). A respectable seeking societal justice to a business poll earlier this year indicated that nearly seeking profits, is the key to under- sixty per cent of Americans believe that standing its debasement. The publi- there was a conspiracy. The sillier stories cation of legal-income statistics led aside, it’s easy to see why many Ameri- partners to consider themselves free cans believe that. The first investigation, agents rather than bound by profes- the Warren Commission, fingered a lone sional ideals. An emphasis on materi- assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The sec- alism flooded law schools with stu- ond, by the House Select Committee on dents whose objective was financial Assassinations, ended with a probable gain. If this type of environment con- conspiracy finding. As recently as 2006, tinues, we may see additional firm a study published in the Journal of Foren- failures. sic Sciences found that calculations “con- Sigmund R. Balka siderably weaken support for the single- 1Forest Hills, N.Y. bullet theory.” The authors are scientists, not “buffs,” as Gopnik calls the doubters. POPULATION CONTROL In 2007, Robert Blakey, the former chief counsel for the House Select Committee Elizabeth Kolbert, in her review of on Assassinations, and I interviewed a Alan Weisman’s “Countdown: Our witness who provided potentially credi- Last, Best Hope for a Future on ble identification of a man other than Earth?” mischaracterizes two ele- Oswald who admitted before his death ments that contribute to overpopula- that he participated in the assassination. tion and strain on social-welfare sys- Finally, thousands of relevant records, in- tems (“Head Count,” October 21st). cluding 1,171 C.I.A. documents classified First, she reiterates the idea that Social on the ground of national security, re- Security “operates on much the same main withheld. The law requires that all principles as a Ponzi scheme.” There Kennedy-assassination-related records are arguments that Social Security’s in- be released by 2017, unless the President vestment strategy is quite clear: that rules otherwise. If Oswald was a leftist the U.S. economy will generate suffi- loner who killed the President, and if that cient wage growth to keep payroll was all there was to it, why continue to taxes at the level needed to support the conceal documents? program. Hence, it is just as likely that Anthony Summers wage stagnation, not declining birth Cappoquin, County Waterford rates or longer life expectancy, has Ireland been the principal problem facing So- t cial Security. Second, Kolbert fails to Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail note that, historically, birth-rate trends to [email protected]. Letters and Web change dramatically and not always comments may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret predictably. Kolbert perpetuates the that owing to the volume of correspondence one-sided view that current trends will we cannot reply to every letter or return letters.