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And the new New Yorker itself? Well, as George Orwell aptly observed: "At 50 one has the face one deserves." The cur rent golden-anniversary issue once again exhibits the profile of Eustace Tilley. But it is no longer the true face of the magazine. Another visage somehow hovers behind the columns, a face no longer young but not old, a wise, ironic face that has learned to tell a joke as well as take one; a face that can turn grim, be cause contemporary distress can no longer be answered with a riposte; a face that has resolved its youthful conflict. "If you can't be funny, be interesting." The advice no longer applies. The face at long last manages to be both — and a little more.
· Stefan Kanfer