March 27, 2017, Issue

I have to say I’m not crazy about any of the pieces in this week’s issue. But there are at least three sentences in which genuine inspiration appears to be present:

Strobe lights flashed on the placid face of the patron pink-bowed cat, which beamed down from the ceiling. [Wei Tchou, “Bar Tab: 100 Fun”]

Politics percolate in evocations of social class and function, with verisimilitude tipping toward the surreal in, for example, a set that suggests at once a beauty parlor, a medical facility, and a prison. [Peter Schjeldahl, “What’s New?”]

“Beauty and the Beast” is delectably done; when it’s over, though, and when the spell is snapped, it melts away, like cotton candy on the tongue. [Anthony Lane, “Pretty and Gritty”]