Judith will like this one for two reasons:

1. it’s about Lyle Lovett,

2. in typical New Yorker style the article uses the word “début” and retains the e-acute.

The New Yorker is probably the last popular magazine in the English-speaking world where the editors insist on the diaeresis (not umlaut) in “cöoperate”.

The Lovett article comes via Normblog, which has some excellent recent posts, including one about The Passion*, one about suicide bombers and two about Iraq. I realise this is a very small sample upon which to base my hypothesis, but could it be that there’s something Jewish about the Lyle phenomenon?

*Yes, it sounds strange to warn people that an article about a movie of the crucifixion gives away the plot, but this one does.