another eye opens

I read Nicholas Lemann’s profile of SEC chair Mary Jo White from beginning to end, though I’m not sure why. Ditto Jill Lepore’s piece on “Doctor Who,” even though I’m not a fan and don’t really understand the appeal (unlike Andy, who is a rabid fanboy excited that he’s been invited to watch the 50th anniversary season-opener broadcast live in a movie theater). I loved Joan Acocella’s breezy digest of competing translations of Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Emily Nussbaum almost convinced me that “It’s Sunny in Philadelphia” is worth watching. In her review she says “It’s as unhinged as ‘Monty Python’ but as polished as ’30 Rock.” Which sounds impressive, except that I’m not a fan of either show. (One of the great things about good writers reviewing television is that they tell all the best jokes, so you don’t actually have to watch the shows.)

My favorite piece in the magazine this week is Dan Chiasson’s essay about Marianne Moore, on the occasion of Linda Leavell’s new biography Holding On Upside Down. Moore’s life story is quite amazing: her father went mad before she was born and so she virtually never knew him; her mother had a ten-year love affair with a woman while raising her daughter; and after her mother broke up with her lesbian lover, Moore and her mother moved in together and shared a bed until the mother died when the poet was 60 years old. Chiasson’s piece is terrific, as is his conversation with Sasha Weiss on the New Yorker Out Loud podcast this week. (Apparently, the poet’s first name is pronounced as if it were Marion, not Mary Anne. Who knew?) One great factoid: “Ford famously hired her to name its much anticipated new model for the year 1958. The episode has struck some as pitiful—a great poet pandering to the crassest patron—but her submissions are unforgettable: Mongoose Civique, Utopian Turtletop, Pastelogram. Ford said no thanks, and went with Edsel.”