We cannot pinpoint the source of our excitement, but this story about The New Yorker’s “spots” piqued our interest. Hmm, much in the way that series of coffee commercials, when we realized it was a series, made us look more closely at the television (we got over this). Perhaps it is the sense that you’ve caught the inside joke before anyone else. Because, after all, how many people the New York Times? Ten? Twenty?
Now all we have to do is slip another magazine into our teetering pile without the husband noticing (apparently we’re “cutting back” — we have no idea what he means by that).
Starting with the magazine’s 80th anniversary issue last month, those quirky illustrations – known as spots to the magazine’s staff – have been quietly unspooling through each issue like minimalist silent films, sharing a running theme or even telling microstories.
The change has been so subtle that most readers – and even some staffers – haven’t noticed. “What? They’ve been changed?” Hendrik Hertzberg, a senior editor, said earlier this week. “Gee, normally I would notice something like that.”
