Black Lamb

Last Month in Black Lamb

Volume 10, Number 1 — January 2012

January 1st, 2012

Ninth Anniversary Issue

In our Ninth Anniversary Issue, editor Terry Ross ponders things he’s done for nine years in a row, and things he hasn’t. In California dreaming, Elizabeth Fournier rides a bike around San Francisco with a guy in spandex. Patsy Tompkins reflects on her forty years in New York City in Becoming a New Yorker. In Anniversary schmalz, Ed Goldberg goes round and round with the number nine.

Toby Tompkins contends that the USA is a different, and weakened, country since Nine eleven. In the seventh installment of his Turkey journal, Lorentz Lossius describes spending time in Istanbul with a Kurdish friend. In Beautiful country, Dan Peterson tours Chile. John M. Daniel disagrees with others and says storytelling is The oldest art. In Tempus fugit, Owen Alexander reflects on the reputations of four artists who were in their heydays twenty years ago.

An Anniversary Quiz offers quotes to identify from fifteen authors, having to do with anniversaries, opinion, writing, and even the number nine (again). Andi Diehn reviews Andre Codrescu’s retelling of the Sheherezade saga in Bedtime stories. In Good art, good talk, Harriet Lesser reviews Martin Gaylord’s book on artist David Hockney.

Two more figures from the world of literature enter our pantheon of Honorary Black Lambs and The Ultimate Literary Calendar for 2012: American novelist Patricia Highsmith and French author Stendhal. Bridge columnist Trixie Barkis again advises caution with the king of spades in Highest king redux. Our monthly recipe is for Crusty Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Smoky Eggplant-Fig Relish. Our Wretched Excess column begs for relief from Angelina Jolie ads for Louis Vuitton and from newspaper photos of people suffering. We introduce a new occasional column called Disinformation with two examples of utterly stupid statements that have appeared in print. Advice columnist Millicent Marshall answers more readers’ questions. And Professor Avram Khan gives us another challenging Black Lamb Word Puzzle.

Posted by: The Editors
Category: Month summaries, Ninth Anniversary Issue | Link to this Entry