THE NEW YORKER DAILY Thursday, November 21, 2024

 

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Books The Art Dealer Who Wanted to Be Art Asher Wertheimer was a Jewish tycoon who asked John Singer Sargent to paint him. The results are strange, slippery—and some of the artist’s best work. By Jackson Arn If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it. Was it forwarded to you? Sign up. Culture Dept.  Cultural Comment Can Shostakovich Ever Escape Stalin’s Shadow? Endless debate over whether the ending of the composer’s Fifth Symphony represents a capitulation to Soviet demands or a secret dissent obscures a more tantalizing possibility. By Alex Ross Podcasting Dept. Why N.S.A. Rules Say No to Smartphones, No to Texting, Yes to Podcasts The agency, known for listening, is getting into the (extremely vetted) talking game, with “No Such Podcast.” By Robert Sullivan The Political Scene: the New Yorker staff writers Dexter Filkins and Clare Malone join Tyler Foggatt to examine Donald Trump’s appointments of the former congressman Matt Gaetz and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to his Cabinet. Gaetz has “gone to Washington to burn it down,” says Filkins. “And he’s been remarkably successful.” Listen and subscribe » Postscript Photograph by Suzie Howell / NYT / Redux On November 11th, the German-born British painter Frank Auerbach died at the age of ninety-three. “Although he was no hermit,” Anthony Lane writes, “the intensity of his diligence—he took one day’s holiday a year—seemed to set him apart and alone.”  His works are raw and dense—“you’re not sure whether to gaze at it, lick it, chew it, or file a weather report”—and few painters have done as much to show the struggle of the creative endeavor.  Read Lane’s remembrance of the artist » Fun & Games Dept.  Mini Crossword A Smallish Puzzle Lipa who appeared in the film “Argylle”: three letters. By Kate Chin Park  Daily Cartoon Thursday, November 21st By Tommy Siegel Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play a quiz from our archive » P.S. Before Jessica Tisch, the scion of one of the country’s richest families, was appointed this week by Eric Adams to be the next N.Y.P.D. commissioner, she was the city’s commissioner of sanitation and the brains behind an endeavor she called the Trash Revolution: “Bags off the sidewalks. Clean highways. Citywide organic-waste pickup. Beefed-up enforcement of sanitary laws.”  This past spring, Eric Lach reported on her progress. “Trash service,” she told him, “is the last all-you-can-use service in New York City.”  Hannah Jocelyn contributed to this edition.

What did you think of today’s newsletter? Let us know. If you like the daily newsletter, browse more New Yorker newsletters.