Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The New Yorker: Where's the Fact Check Dept.?
This week's issue has the following cartoon on page 4. In fact, it's the first cartoon in the magazine. Notice anything?
Click! for a larger image.
That's right! The Arctic-Americans in this country are being mis-represented. As everyone knows, all the species of penguins live south of the equator.
We're talking Anarctic-Americans, here Mr. Glen Le Lievre! As we all know, it's the vanishing and going-down-the-road to extinction polar bear that can qualify as an Arctic-American if one chooses to saunter down from the icebergs up North and cross Canada to come here.
Click! for a larger image.
That's right! The Arctic-Americans in this country are being mis-represented. As everyone knows, all the species of penguins live south of the equator.
We're talking Anarctic-Americans, here Mr. Glen Le Lievre! As we all know, it's the vanishing and going-down-the-road to extinction polar bear that can qualify as an Arctic-American if one chooses to saunter down from the icebergs up North and cross Canada to come here.
Labels: New Yorker
Comments:
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Wow, you're good. I was so chuckling over the Arctic-Americanism that I didn't catch the geography of it all.
And speaking of, I hear the Antarctic-Americans may be moving to Kansas City soon. ;-)
And speaking of, I hear the Antarctic-Americans may be moving to Kansas City soon. ;-)
I seem to recall that one possible derivation of the word penguin is from the Welsh pen-gwin (white-head), so it may originally have referred to some kind of bird that is native to the North Atlantic that resembles the penguin. Maybe the bird on the sofa (or is it a loveseat?) is really one of those...
Hey "Jack," you're missing the entire point of the cartoon (and yes, I'm a Canadian--but that's not the point either). He's poking fun at the need to categorize & label everything--whether it's race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and so forth. When, in fact, the very act of labeling is, in itself, a futile act which only serves to shift the focus of what one is supposed to be thought of as. What needs to be deconstructed is the categories themselves. And this is where you come in, and I thank you for your input, because you only serve to reinforce exactly what's wrong with the categories in the first place. Had he put "Antarctic" instead, it would have conveyed exactly the same message.
And for the record, Darko, Antarctica has a couple letters you happened to omit in your rush to criticise someone else in an obviously desperate attempt to make yourself feel better about yourself. And yes, we spell it with a "s" not a "z" (which is pronouced "zed," not "zee").
Cheers,
And for the record, Darko, Antarctica has a couple letters you happened to omit in your rush to criticise someone else in an obviously desperate attempt to make yourself feel better about yourself. And yes, we spell it with a "s" not a "z" (which is pronouced "zed," not "zee").
Cheers,
# opined by 
: 4:01 AM, March 09, 2007
: 4:01 AM, March 09, 2007
Dear Canadian Anonymous or CanAnon, if you don't mind. I appreciate your long piece although I'd disagree with your last past point, "in your rush to criticise someone else in an obviously desperate attempt to make yourself feel better about yourself" quite vehemently. the traffic on thsi site doesn't come close to approaching the millions of folks who read The New Yorker, a magazine I've been a regular reader and subscriber for the last 25 years or so.
CanAnon, I get the point of the cartoon. Thanks for your exhaustive comentary thereof. If you've been a regular reader of TNY you probably know that it is rare when they make a mistake and rarer still when poor simple me actually catches it. That was the whole point of my post. I love their stuff; finding an error makes them seem a magazone poepled by real humans.
Thanks for the pronucation about "Z". I recall the almighty zed from my very enjoyable 5 years living up there.
Are you still living there, CanAnon? Your comment's flavor doesn't carry the usual tactfulness and decency I normally associate with a resident of Canada.
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CanAnon, I get the point of the cartoon. Thanks for your exhaustive comentary thereof. If you've been a regular reader of TNY you probably know that it is rare when they make a mistake and rarer still when poor simple me actually catches it. That was the whole point of my post. I love their stuff; finding an error makes them seem a magazone poepled by real humans.
Thanks for the pronucation about "Z". I recall the almighty zed from my very enjoyable 5 years living up there.
Are you still living there, CanAnon? Your comment's flavor doesn't carry the usual tactfulness and decency I normally associate with a resident of Canada.
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