The February 23 New Yorker

Worth a trip to the library.. the February 23, 2009 New Yorker magazine.

There is a story by Evan Ratliff entitled “Shoot!” about Jerry Barber, a guy who has developed a variety of recoilless automatic shotguns and rifles (videos). Because these powerful weapons don’t have much recoil they can be mounted on lightweight ground robots and radio-controlled helicopters. The U.S. Army doesn’t like them because they aren’t expensive enough and weren’t conceived by them.

“The Background Hum” is about Ian McEwan, author of Enduring Love, among other great novels. My favorite part is when McEwan’s son is assigned the book for a school paper. He asks his dad about the meaning of the novel, makes that the subject of his paper, and receives a D for his work. The teacher says that he didn’t understand the book and that Joe, the main character was “too male” in his thinking.

There is also a story by Italo Calvino, the only one of these that I could find online.