The New Yorker July 11-18, 2022

Ian Parker (“The First Rule Is Not to Lie,” p. 36), a staff writer, began contributing to the magazine in 1992. Nancy Morejón (Poem, p. 41) is a Cuban poet. A bilingual collection of her poems, “Homing Instincts/Querencias,” translated from the Spanish by Pamela Carmell, came out in 2014. Bryan Washington (“Arrivals,” p. 28) is the author of the story collection “Lot” and the novel “Memorial.” Ling Ma (“Peking Duck,” p. 62) published the novel “Severance” in 2018. Her new book, “Bliss Montage: Stories,” will be published in September. Akhil Sharma (“Wide World of Disney,” p. 45) is the author of “Family Life.” A revised edition of his début novel, “An Obedient Father,” is out this month. Shirley Jackson (“Call Me Ishmael,” p. 27), who died in 1965, wrote six novels, including “The Haunting of…

FREIGHT OVERBOARD As a former longshoreman, I was intrigued by Kathryn Schulz’s article about how container ships have radically changed international trade during the past six decades (“Shipping News,” June 6th). I am concerned that some readers may come away from the piece with the impression that longshoring is no longer part of the shipping industry. In fact, longshoremen and -women, drawing on a combination of skill and brawn, continue to play a vital role in making sure that containers get where they need to go. Lashers—the workers who secure containers to ships with rods and turnbuckles—are particularly important in preventing containers from falling overboard. Other dockworkers operate huge cranes that move containers from land to ship; many develop back pain from constantly leaning over in their small cabs as they…

JULY 6 – 19, 2022 Since 2008, the Fandango Fronterizo Festival has brought musicians from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border together to play son jarocho, regional folk music from Veracruz, Mexico. In 2018, the jazz maestro Arturo O’Farrill met with the festival’s founder, Jorge Francisco Castillo, to arrange a special jam session that was captured in the HBO documentary “Fandango at the Wall.” O’Farrill and his eighteen-piece Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra reunite with musicians from Veracruz for a free concert on the lawn of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier I, on July 9. As ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. ART Joy Episalla “Foldtogram,” a portmanteau of “folded” and “photogram,” is a term coined by this New York artist to describe their novel addition to the long history of cameraless photographs. The…

Is there a culinary innovation more practical than the tamal? Tamales, believed to have originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 B.C., were considered sacred by pre-Hispanic civilizations and were offered to the gods but were also used as portable fuel for long journeys, hunting excursions, and armies in battle. To make tamales, corn kernels are steeped in water and calcium hydroxide (lye)—a process called nixtamalization—then rinsed, drained, and milled to be turned into masa, a nutritious and filling paste seasoned with salt and lard or oil. A big spoonful of masa—plus some combination of meat, vegetable, cheese, and salsa—gets tightly wrapped in dried corn husk, then steamed until firm. Earlier this year, archeologists posited that not even the steeping liquid was wasted by the Mayans. In a pair of…

The lasting depredations of the Trump Presidency were brought into sharp focus by last week’s testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6th, which left an indelible portrait of Donald Trump as a food-throwing despot willing to encourage an armed mob to march to the Capitol. And, in addition to an attempted coup, we have him to thank for 2022’s becoming the turning point of the Supreme Court’s conservative revolution. In a single week in late June, the conservative Justices asserted their recently consolidated power by expanding gun rights, demolishing the right to abortion, blowing a hole in the wall between church and state, and curtailing the ability to combat climate change. The Court is not behaving as an institution invested in social stability, let alone in…

Carlos Cevallos, eighty-four, and his brother Miguel, eighty-one, make whimsical, hand-drawn signs and posters for a living. The other day, they were sitting in a booth at a coffee shop in Lenox Hill. The brothers, who live together nearby, were dressed, as they are every day, in baggy suits and neckties. They both used a knife and a fork to eat a corn muffin. Seated across from them was their friend and helper, Aviram Cohen, fortyone, who asked, “You want me to show you the jobs for next week?” The brothers gravely nodded. Then, using a mixture of English and Spanish—the brothers are Ecuadorian but were raised in Colombia, and speak limited English—Cohen outlined six signs that were to be made, including one for a gastropub in New Jersey called Salt. “Irish,”…