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In today’s newsletter, Anthony Lane on a life-changing meal. But first, the editors behind this week’s Cartoons & Puzzles Issue share a holiday feast of gags and games. Plus:
Liz Maynes-Aminzade | Emma Allen
Puzzles and games editor | Cartoon editor
Every December, when our colleagues find themselves too exhausted to type another word, the reins of this magazine are temporarily handed over to us, the editors of The New Yorker’s two least serious sections. Is this wise? Who are we to say? But we’ve been building up our finger strength for this moment, so, giddyup.
Four years into this tradition—check out last year’s, if you missed it—we like to think of each Cartoons & Puzzles Issue as a festive cookie platter: colorful, eclectic, delectable, available in gluten-free varieties . . . Maybe this metaphor has limits (unlike the one about the reins!), but it’s fitting, at least, as this year’s issue was inspired by holiday feasts. Inside, you’ll find a Yule Log puzzle, by Patrick Berry; a comic on the relative merits of goopy and sloppy foods, by Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein; a secret menu to decode, by Kate Chin Park; a dodge-the-dinner-drama board game by Liana Finck; and much more. You’ll also find a cartoons-and-puzzles mashup game, Laugh Lines, in which you can play history sleuth by guessing when New Yorker cartoons were originally published. Bon appétit, and happy holidays! Browse the Cartoons & Puzzles Issue »
Editor’s Pick
Nobody is quite sure where risotto came from or when it first appeared.Illustration by María Jesús Contreras
The Secret History of Risotto
The dish is governed by a set of laws that are rooted in tradition, rich in common sense, and aching to be broken or bent.
In the fall of 1984, Anthony Lane visited Venice with his parents, where he had his first taste of risotto. “Off-white, unobtrusive, and modestly freckled with parsley, it was as plain to the eye as it was revolutionary to the palate,” he recollects, in a piece for this week’s issue. “I feasted, almost cracking the plate with my scraping, and silently vowed that I would try to re-create such food—or a ghost of it, however dissatisfying—for the rest of my life,” he writes. “I would wander the earth, seeking out one risotto after another, in search of the ideal.” And so he does. Read the story »
More Top Stories
Daily Cartoon
“People prefer your traditional surveillance to the drones.”
Cartoon by Tyson Cole
More Fun & Games
P.S. Not every light in the sky is coming from a mystery drone. The sight of the world above might even inspire a feeling of familiarity. As Michael Lemonick explains, “Your atoms, and the atoms inside the family dog or the tree growing outside, came from the stars.” ✨
Ian Crouch and Hannah Jocelyn contributed to this edition.
