| | | In today’s newsletter, new reporting from Rania Abouzeid on the toll in Lebanon of the Israel-Hezbollah war. But, first, Margaret Talbot on the fresh relevance of the fight for legal birth control. Plus: • Sarah Moss’s memoir of self-deprivation
• Anthony Lane remembers Frank Auerbach
• The art dealer who wanted to be art | | | | | Margaret Talbot
Staff writer It’s remarkable how many of the battles fought by early-twentieth-century birth-control activists are being waged again today. Is any contraception, other than the rhythm method and the like, “unnatural” and therefore suspect? Do states have a stake in promoting fertility, and does that interest allow them to ban or restrict abortion? Can the Comstock statute, a social-purity law from 1873, which plenty of people even then thought was antiquated, be dusted off and used to criminalize the mailing of abortion pills, as Project 2025 proposes? These are all live questions in the post-Dobbs, Trump Round Two era, however successfully the President-elect convinced much of the electorate that he was done messing with reproductive rights. That’s why Stephanie Gorton’s new book, “The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America,” which I review in this week’s issue, is so timely. There’s something to be learned from these earlier struggles and strategies—from the serious mistakes these movement leaders made (Sanger’s embrace of eugenics above all), as well as from their bold commitment to free speech, civil disobedience, and sexual fulfillment. | | | | From the News Desk | |  Photograph by Maher Abou Taleb / Reuters Although Israel claims to be targeting Hezbollah fighters, to date more than thirty-five hundred Lebanese have been killed, and some fifteen thousand wounded. More than 1.2 million people, about a fifth of Lebanon’s population, have fled their homes. A nurse working in a hospital southwest of Baalbek tells Rania Abouzeid, who reports from the region, “I am seeing wounded babies who have nothing to do with anything.” Read the story » | | | | | Our journalism relies on your support. If you believe in fearless, fair, and fact-checked reporting, please subscribe today. | | | | | | Editor’s Picks |  Page-Turner A Novelist’s Unnerving Memoir of Disordered EatingIn “My Good Bright Wolf,” Sarah Moss recounts a dangerous romance with self-deprivation. By Katy Waldman | | | | | Books The Art Dealer Who Wanted to Be ArtAsher Wertheimer was a Jewish tycoon who asked John Singer Sargent to paint him. The results are strange, slippery—and some of the artist’s best work. By Jackson Arn | | | | |  | If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it. Was it forwarded to you? Sign up. | | | | Culture Dept. |  Cultural Comment Can Shostakovich Ever Escape Stalin’s Shadow?Endless debate over whether the ending of the composer’s Fifth Symphony represents a capitulation to Soviet demands or a secret dissent obscures a more tantalizing possibility. By Alex Ross | | | | | Podcasting Dept. Why N.S.A. Rules Say No to Smartphones, No to Texting, Yes to PodcastsThe agency, known for listening, is getting into the (extremely vetted) talking game, with “No Such Podcast.” By Robert Sullivan | | | | |  | The Political Scene: the New Yorker staff writers Dexter Filkins and Clare Malone join Tyler Foggatt to examine Donald Trump’s appointments of the former congressman Matt Gaetz and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to his Cabinet. Gaetz has “gone to Washington to burn it down,” says Filkins. “And he’s been remarkably successful.” Listen and subscribe » | | | | | Postscript | |  Photograph by Suzie Howell / NYT / Redux On November 11th, the German-born British painter Frank Auerbach died at the age of ninety-three. “Although he was no hermit,” Anthony Lane writes, “the intensity of his diligence—he took one day’s holiday a year—seemed to set him apart and alone.” His works are raw and dense—“you’re not sure whether to gaze at it, lick it, chew it, or file a weather report”—and few painters have done as much to show the struggle of the creative endeavor. Read Lane’s remembrance of the artist » | | | | Fun & Games Dept. |  Mini Crossword A Smallish Puzzle Lipa who appeared in the film “Argylle”: three letters. By Kate Chin Park |  Daily Cartoon Thursday, November 21st By Tommy Siegel | | | | |  | 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. Before Jessica Tisch, the scion of one of the country’s richest families, was appointed this week by Eric Adams to be the next N.Y.P.D. commissioner, she was the city’s commissioner of sanitation and the brains behind an endeavor she called the Trash Revolution: “Bags off the sidewalks. Clean highways. Citywide organic-waste pickup. Beefed-up enforcement of sanitary laws.” This past spring, Eric Lach reported on her progress. “Trash service,” she told him, “is the last all-you-can-use service in New York City.” 🗑️ | | | | Hannah Jocelyn contributed to this edition. | | | | | | | |
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