The above is from this week’s New Yorker. Is no news good news? In the common usage of the term, yes. But to some, no news means not wanting to know the news, you know? And I believe that’s not good, particularly as we lead up to the Presidential Election.
A gag order has been slapped on Trump by Judge Menchan ahead of one of his criminal trials, at the request of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
Thanks to Mary Trump, the niece of the former president, I learned why NY decided to lower Trump’s penalty. Yesterday here, I pleaded my need to understand why they did this, so I thought I would share what I learned. If you don’t already, follow Mary Trump on Substack.
“It’s true that paying a lesser amount is a victory for Donald. Had it been all or nothing at $464 million, AG Letitia James would have started to seize his property immediately. But there are plenty of reasons for the AG’s office to feel encouraged:
As George Conway explained: “the State of New York is guaranteed the ability to collect at least” $175 million “without having to send lawyers around the country chasing Trump’s assets down, which would be a time-consuming, costly, and difficult process … Put more simply, the State of NY is better off having $175 million of the judgment secured than having none of it secured.” They can then seize properties to get the rest if need be.
“The $464 million judgment — plus interest — against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands,” AG Letitia James said through a spokesperson.”
But I don’t want to be all news all the time, and try not to be.
Today is the 95th birthday of the wonderful Ed Sorel, a political artist and writer from the Bronx. When I began my career in cartooning— and to this day— Ed was an artist and thinker I looked up to. Now, we have been friends for a few decades. Ed has done covers for The New Yorker, as well as drawings inside, and he has drawn for many other places, The Nation, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. I don’t think he’d mind if I reproduced one of his drawings here, one of my favorites of his covers. Ed’s political and literary caricatures are fantastic, and are what most people know about him. He’s a great political satirist on paper and in person.
When I first met Ed, he offered me some advice, in fact it was more of a scolding. He said you can’t draw using a light box. That’s literally a box with a lucite top that shines light through the lucite onto a flat surface. To do a finished drawing, one puts a sketch on the box, turns the light on and then places a “good” piece of paper on top to trace the sketch in ink.
His point was that using a light box tightens up your drawing. Ed believs one should draw directly with the pen on paper (although I know he does do rough, light pencil lines underneath sometimes as a guide). You can see the beautiful looseness in his drawing.
It took me a while to heed his advice, and— most of the time— I do as he urged and draw directly. For my New Yorker finished pieces, I still use a light box to roughly see the sketch—instead of using pencil lines on the paper.
But Ed is right. You have seen me draw directly on paper, live on-camera. It’s fresh, direct, energetic (most of the time) and vibrant. It’s the connection of the artist’s head and eye and hand to the pen and then the paper that is so important.
Thanks again, and see you tomorrow. Here is a photo of me and some of my colleagues, New Yorker cartoonists and cover artists, at Ed’s party last Sunday. I feel so lucky.
How terrific it is to read your stories here - and especially as you are not only familiar with the process and these incredible artists, but one of them.
I like Ed! Lucky you to have his mentorship!