Best and Worst of the Week: "The New Yorker"

From The New Yorker of April 27, 2009

Best sentence of the week:

<<Nearly everything Poe wrote, including the spooky stories for which he is best remembered, has this virtuosic, showy, lilting, and slightly wilting quality, like a peony just past bloom.>>

from "The Humbug" by Jill Lepore

Reasons: the serial adjectives, the rhyme, and the simile

*

Worst of the week:

<< Just because the anonymous Euro-techno group Eiffel 65 was on the charts for only one stretch in 2000 does not mean that its mission was not accomplished. >>

from "Ladies Wild" by Sasha Frere-Jones

Reasons: the double negative and the trivial nature of the observation

Readers are encouraged to submit their own nominees for best and worst sentence of the week.

Comments

[Laura Orem]

I guess student papers don't qualify?

[Jennifer Michael Hecht]

ha - these are great

[Stacey]

RE: SFJ- Why does he say on the one hand that the group is "anonymous" and in the same sentence name it. Isn't that a contradiction?

[Casey Donovan]

Not to belabor the point, but what is the connection between Eiffel 65 and the invasion of Iraq? Mission accomplished!