"New Yorker Festival Pulls Steve Bannon as Headliner Following High-Profile Dropouts."

The NYT reports.

The New Yorker dropped Bannon after John Mulaney, Judd Apatow, Jack Antonoff, and Jim Carrey all dropped out. And according to the editor David Remnick, "even New Yorker staff members had expressed discomfort" at including Bannon. Remnick also said, "The reaction on social media was critical and a lot of the dismay and anger was directed at me and my decision to engage him."

Jeez, the editor of The New Yorker is sensitive to "dismay and anger" that's directed at him personally? Stand up to it! "I don’t want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I’ve ignored their concerns." What about the concerns of your readers who now think you're cowardly and lame? I'm a long-time subscriber to The New Yorker, and I think you're lame.

I think you've ignored my concerns, and I'd like to think your magazine challenges readers and isn't just about paying attention to our "concerns."

Bannon's response is, of course, much more appealing:

“The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation,” Mr. Bannon said in a statement to The New York Times. “In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob.” 

Remnick walked right into that.

ALSO: The article quotes Mulaney: "I’m out. I genuinely support public intellectual debate, and have paid to see people speak with whom I strongly disagree. But this isn’t James Baldwin vs William F Buckley.” And Antonoff: “respectfully that’s a full no for me and normalization of white supremacy.”

By the way, who are John Mulaney and Jack Antonoff? I think I might be familiar with Antonoff as the ex-boyfriend of Lena Dunham. Ah, yes:

Antonoff and Dunham remained together until January 2018, with representatives of both announcing their separation as "amicable".

In June 2014, Antonoff said he was "desperate" for kids, explaining:

It just seems like the most fun thing in the world. I've never met people who have kids who haven't looked me in the eye and been like, "It's the greatest thing that's ever happened." ... I think it's biological. I'm 30. I'm not that young, right? I'm not, like, 24 or 22. I'm no longer in the phase of my life where I talk about everything as in the future. Like, I'm in the future.

IN THE COMMENTS: mccullough said:

Remnick was an idiot to invite Bannon in the first place. He was a fool if he didn’t know this all would happen.

Was Remnick an idiot? For one brief shining moment he believed that The New Yorker audience wants breadth and challenge. And some of us really do. But I guess he was an idiot not to see the game several moves ahead. Now, here he is, in the future, looking narrow and weak.

Let's take closer look at those Clerihews.

Donald J. Trump,
Like him or lump,
Wants to build a huge wall;
We'll find out this fall.

— Clyde

Okay. Nice! That's from the comments to last night's "A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley."

Clyde
Tried
To follow the rules
Unlike some of those fools.

So did Curious George:

Professor Ann Althouse
Larry’s her spouse.
He helps her with blogging
And the sink when clogging.

Good! First line is the name of a ((famous)) person and nothing more. Second line rhymes, then 2 more lines that rhyme with each other. There's no rule about meter or number of syllables, but keep it amusing and delightful.

Curious George
Knew how to forge
A Clerihew about me, Meade
And the clogging he freed.

Now, Cath did one about me before Curious George, and she followed the rules:

Professor Ann Althouse
Allows us all t' grouse
In this welcoming forum
With varying decorum.

Cath
Hath
Written a Clerihew
For the literary few.

Another appropriately rule-following Clerihewer is mccullough:

John Kasich
Pronounced like basic
Wants to get along
But is getting schlonged

McCullough
Could cull a
Great word from the pile
And make us all smile.

IN THE COMMENTS: Ignorance is Bliss said:

Ignorance is Bliss
Is seriously piss
'd, to Let's take a closer look he alluded
Yet his poem was excluded

Ah! Yes:

Ann Althouse, Professor
And Meade, who impress'd her
Con-Law she unmuddies
Plus Critical Breast Studies

"Madison feminists urge boycott of Fifty Shades of Grey."

Noted.

Why should you have to boycott it? Isn't it better just not to want to see it?

IN THE COMMENTS: mccullough said:

I guess this means no "50 Shades of Gray" project like the "Gatsby" project on Althouse.

The "Gatsby" project was things like this. One sentence from the work, isolated for discussion in contextless isolation. I loved that project. Did you? Vote, and I just might do it.

Should I do a new series like the "Gatsby" project?

No.

Yes, and use "50 Shades of Grey."

Yes, but with something other than "50 Shades of Grey." (Put suggestions in the comments.)

Just bring back the "Gatsby" project. There are plenty of sentences left!

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