The Wacky World of the Westminster Dog Show

Plus: Alice Munro; Michael Cohen’s trust issues; and the view from Palestinian America. View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, May 14, 2024 In today’s newsletter, off the leash, and then: • Michael Cohen’s trust issues • The view from Palestinian America • Editing Alice Munro The Wacky and Wonderful World of the Westminster Dog Show A canine campaign can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention all the brushing, trimming, blow-drying, and styling products. Did you think it was easy being top dog? Photograph by Dolly Faibyshev It’s easy to lampoon the odd world of dog shows—and it’s already been done definitively, by Christopher Guest in his mockumentary “Best in Show,” from 2000. But what if there is more to the scenes of primping, prancing, and stern inspecting than simple absurdity? In a delightful essay from this week’s issue, Kathryn Schulz reviews “Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show,” a new book by the journalist Tommy Tomlinson, which finds moments of surprising grace by following, as Schulz notes, “real people who, despite dedicating their lives to dog shows, do not seem particularly unhinged.” The human community on the dog-show circuit is important, but the magic has always been about the dogs—including the fancy purebreds that win prizes and the less-perfect specimens that share our couches. “The crucial thing,” Schulz writes, “is not that they love us, or seem to, but the converse: they give us a way to love the world, our most important bulwark against despair.” Read the story Further reading from the archive: Jia Tolentino on the grooming regimen at Westminster; portraits of star dogs; and Susan Orlean follows a Best in Show winning boxer named Biff Truesdale. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the News Desk Our Local Correspondents Michael Cohen’s Trust Issues The star witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial is also the most aggrieved and seemingly unreliable one. By Eric Lach Editor’s Pick The View from Palestinian America In photographs of Missouri, taken six months into the war in Gaza, the quiet act of documenting life is a kind of protest against erasure. By Zaina Arafat Photography by Kholood Eid Photograph by Kholood Eid In 1987, when Palestinians rose up against the Israeli occupation in what would become known as the first intifada, I was six years old. Each evening, when Peter Jennings delivered the six-thirty news, my family would gather in our wood-panelled basement, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and watch for images of Nablus, where we’re from. We saw young Palestinians, in jeans and bandanas, throwing a seemingly endless supply of stones; Israeli soldiers, in tan uniforms and combat boots, guarding checkpoints, looking both vigilant and bored; coffins shrouded in Palestinian flags. Our lives in America were at a cool remove from the conflict. I spent those evenings spreading Barbies across the floor, and my baby brother spent them in his bouncy chair. My father would pour Doritos into a bowl and argue with the news. Only my mother kept quiet, her eyes fixed on a homeland that seemed to be receding. Keep reading If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up. Postscript Photograph by George Waldman/Corbis The esteemed Canadian writer Alice Munro has died, at the age of ninety-two. “Few contemporary writers are more admired, and with good reason,” the critic James Wood wrote, when Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 2013. Deborah Treisman, who edited Munro’s work for The New Yorker, has written that editing her stories was “sometimes a lesson in feeling extraneous.” To begin, read Munro’s classic story “What Is Remembered,” which was published in 2001. Fun & Games Dept. Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle Pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist: five letters. By Wyna Liu Shouts & Murmurs The Pros and Cons of Being a Children’s Author Pro: Writing and drawing! Con: Writing and drawing. By Liz Montague Daily Cartoon Tuesday, May 14th By Brooke Bourgeois Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play a quiz from our archive » P.S. The Bernie Sanders Mountain Dog, the West Highland Influencer, the American Fox News Hound, and other lesser-known breeds make their début at the Westminster Dog Show. What did you think of today’s newsletter? Let us know. If you like the daily newsletter, browse more New Yorker newsletters. 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