Red Dawn

A wonderful surprise was in my mailbox last night. Right behind my 401K $tatement was this week's New Yorker, with their best cover art since Javier Mariscal put the Barcelona Olympic mascot, Cobi, in a convertible driving along the Pacific Coast Highway (sometime in the 1990s).

“Red Death on Wall Street” by Robert Risko is just hilarious to me. Although the upended world economy is no laughing matter, something about the cover artwork tickled me (at least to smile for a few minutes before opening that 401K envelope). Maybe it's the bleeding eye sockets in crimson ink, or the pinstripe suits. Or the clinched fists and expressions that seem to scream out, "Noooooooo!"

Earlier this year, the magazine also had some outstanding features on the Beijing Games, including an online audio report featuring architecture critic Paul Goldberger (fantastic!). The New Yorker also has some interesting archives from Olympic reports all the way back to London in 1948.