The New Yorker, 2008-07-21

[fiefoe]

"Streetscapes: Fish Story" / Mike Peed
__ The pet shark may be the new pit bull—the mascot of the outsized ego, the Hummer of the living room.

"Surfing the Universe" / Benjamin Wallace-Wells {Lubos!}

"Buy Shanghai" / Patricia Marx
__ The astonishingly encyclopedic selection of bootleg DVDs and boxed sets at a little outlet called Movie World are a genuine steal (378 Dagu Road). Across the street is Even Better Than Movie World, which is true to its name (407 Dagu Road). {!!!}

__ A sleeveless dress of ivory silk, decorated with a line drawing of a bicycle that spans nearly the whole circumference of the hem, is arguably the most glamorous item of clothing in Shanghai. It can be found at Anybody’s Blonde, the Shanghai branch of the hugely popular Russian-owned franchise, which is called So French in that country (351 Zizhong Road; $374)

"The Lion and the Mouse" / Jill Lepore
__ Andrew Carnegie underwrote the construction of more than sixteen hundred public libraries in the United States,

__ Lurking in the stacks of every “children’s library” are dozens of literary impostors: satires, from ages past, hiding their fangs; and shiny new books, dressed up in some very old clothes.

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