June 23, 2025 Issue

There’s not much in this week’s issue that catches my eye. The magazine isn’t the problem. It’s me. I’m jaded. My range of interests is getting narrower and narrower. Usually, when I’m in this funk, “Goings On” bails me out. But even that stimulating section seems lacking this week. I miss art reviews. I miss Jackson Arn. I miss Peter Schjeldahl. I miss poetry reviews. I miss jazz reviews. I miss photography reviews. I miss good formalist book reviews like the ones James Wood writes. I miss Janet Malcolm. About the only thing I really like in this week’s issue is Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin’s witty artwork illustrating Hannah Goldfield’s “Ladies' Night.” It’s amazing what those two can do with a Sharpie, transforming a tall glass of foamy beer into a basketball hoop.

John McPhee's New Bear Piece - "Direct Eye Contact"

Yesterday, visiting newyorker.com, I was delighted to find a new piece by my all-time favorite New Yorker writer – John McPhee. Called “Direct Eye Contact,” it appears in the magazine’s March 5, 2018, issue with the tantalizing tagline, “The most sophisticated, most urban, most reproductively fruitful of bears.” Ah, a bear piece – one of McPhee’s great specialties (see my post “Bears, Bears, Bears”). I wanted to read it immediately. But I managed to resist, opting to wait for the print version. As soon as it arrives, I’ll devour it faster than a bear eats a honeycomb, and post my response here.  

Credit: The above artwork, by Tamara Shopsin, appears on newyorker.com as an illustration for John McPhee’s “Direct Eye Contact.”