The New Yorker, 2008-04-14

[fiefoe]

"Somebody Has To Be In Control" / Ian Parker

• His manner - nonchalance underpinned, it seemed, by vigilance and self-scrutiny - carried the suggestion that almost any divergence from banter was unforgivable artsy narcissism.
• an enviable midpoint of courteous roguishness
• "He loves the notion of the camaraderie." This was an amplification, not a correction; but it hinted at Clooney's social purposefulness.
• It's no good, he said, with a likable hint of Martha Stewart in his manner, "if nobody's asking, 'Who wants wine?'"
• To use his own striking phrase: "I usually feel that time should be entertained."
• Tilda Swinton: disconnected from the traffic of his natrual, active charisma
• Clooney is one of a very small group of people who, when asked to consider the most satisfying parts of their lives, begin to describe business meetings.
  

"The Petition" / Jane Kramer

"Buying It" / Peter Schjeldahl
__ Retail swank is an aesthetic lingua franca today.
__ a measled field of tiny Vuitton logos, jellyfish eyes, and quatrefoil flowers, in many peculiarly unexciting colors
__ But to actively woo the eye and tantalize the mind implies the possible existence of resistant viewers.

"Prior Convictions" / Jill Lepore
__ The Founders believed that to defer without examination to what your forefathers believed was to become a slave to the tyranny of the past.
 
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