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13808. woden - 2/12/2005 1:54:40 AM

Re: the New Yorker

My parents subscribed to the New Yorker from the beginning of their married life until circa 1994, a couple of years after Tina Brown took over. They hung in there for a while but eventually became completely disgusted with the magazine. My father hated that the policy of avoiding politics had been abandoned; and my mother felt that the editorial quality had declined sharply. I think the last straw was the appearance of the word "fuck" in an article about baseball - this symbolized the complete break with the magazine's tradition. My mother thought it was disgusting that the owners were not content with the magazine turning a modest profit and wanted it to have "market share."

I read the magazine as a child, at first just the cartoons and later I would read the stories and articles. I remember that the color ads were usually for very posh merchandise such as Rolex watches. Towards the back of the magazine you'd find smaller ads for things like a cat toilet-training system. The inner page was always a Lord & Taylor advertisement with a black and white sketch.

I read two biographies of Harold Ross and found them to be extremely entertaining. One is by James Thurber, and there was another I enjoyed much more called Ross and the New Yorker. I loved reading his outrageous profanities -- though he was oddly prudish about what could appear in his sophisticated magazine, he was flagrantly vulgar in his speech. I also liked the anecdote about the office 'Jesus', having had bosses that did the same thing.

I have tried to read it since then, and occasionally see a good article, but I do miss what used to be. There is already a magazine called Vanity Fair for highbrow celebrity fawning and plenty of political magazines, but I don't think there are any magazines today that have the same type of material as the old New Yorker.

13809. Magoseph - 2/12/2005 3:42:53 PM

http://www.gawker.com/news/spy_tbrown.jpg


Hello, everyone!

13810. thoughtful - 2/12/2005 4:52:38 PM

Mags, yes I have seen that scene in gentlemen prefer blondes...she was truly extraordinary looking woman. What a sad life tho. I remember seeing pics of her in the city in her 'everyday' clothes and she really looked different. People didn't bother her then.

I remember some of the pre-tina new yorker and remember my frustration at the length of the 'good' articles as being too short and the length of the 'dull' articles being too long in the post-tina mag.

Regardless, I find I enjoy the hertzberg commentary and have found their investigative reporting by hersch and stuff to be even more valuable as we've watched the quality of newspaper journalism deteriorate. I mean when they get woodward to roll over and play dead for the bushies, pay right wingers to schill for the admin, and issue press passes to rwing non-journalists to trash dems while asking the president questions, who can you count on?

13811. judithathome - 2/12/2005 8:31:12 PM

One of the more heartbreaking bastardizations of a really great magazine is the one that happened when Helen Gurley Brown took over Cosmopolitan...she turned an excellent magazine into a T&A nightmare. The only think she retained was the name of the magazine.

What IS it with these chicks named Brown and magazines?

13812. wonkers2 - 2/12/2005 8:40:35 PM

Cap'n Dirty sez, "T & A nightmare's an oxymoron!"

13813. Magoseph - 2/13/2005 10:12:23 AM

Thoughtful, Linnea, and Woden, thank you for writing of your respective experiences with the New Yorker. I enjoyed reading them because what interested me when I first read the magazine was the aesthetics of the writing, rather than content of any article, report, or short stories--it still does, actually. At this point, I am no authority in judging whether the magazine has gained or lost after Tina Brown. However, I will venture to say that David Remnick has struck a tolerable balance between the heydays of the New Yorker and Brown’s onslaught on it.

Thoughtful, being interested in old American movies is an experience rather new in my life. After seeing every film noir I could, I graduated recently to the 1950s and 1960s, and that is how I became interested in Marilyn Monroe, only because the movie star Flexy knew about was that woman—if he knows of someone, chances are that this person has some redeeming qualities for what I am looking for in movies, so I thought. I have somewhat since changed my mind about that, as you can imagine. Flexy’s instincts are better at finances. Naturally, I saw may of the classic movies of the periods I just cited, but what interests me the most in movies, is to what extent they are a mirror image of social changes.

13814. resonance - 2/13/2005 7:51:14 PM

In other news:

I popped the question and my girlfriend said yes, so we're now engaged.

Hope Woden doesn't find out!!!!!

13817. Magoseph - 2/13/2005 8:23:03 PM

Congratulations, res, to you both--tell me, what is it that you hope she won't find out, that we know about your engagement here at the Mote?

13818. PelleNilsson - 2/13/2005 9:04:14 PM

Well done, res. Will you scan the ring? Or even better, scan Woden? The side with the crows, please.

13819. SnowOwl - 2/13/2005 9:14:49 PM

Do we congratulate Woden or commiserate with her?

Congrats to you both. I wish you much joy together.

13820. arkymalarky - 2/13/2005 9:21:10 PM

Congrats to you two!

13821. Magoseph - 2/13/2005 9:27:48 PM

The side with the crows, please.

That's a new one for me--I wonder what it means. By the way, Pelle, thank you for answering my question in Politics.

13822. PelleNilsson - 2/13/2005 9:43:30 PM

Look up what family of birds crows belong to.

13823. judithathome - 2/13/2005 11:19:54 PM

Congratulations to Res & Woden...many long years of truly interesting conversation to you both!!

13824. woden - 2/14/2005 4:48:39 AM

Thanks!

what is it that you hope she won't find out, that we know about your engagement here at the Mote?

This is a running joke of ours, "I love my sweetie...and I love you too, hon."

We've been engaged for quite some time, however we just got the ring. The stone was an heirloom last worn by Res's mother. I changed my mind about the setting a few times, and we had considered a few with white gold and smaller stones. Ultimately we decided that we didn't want to buy any new diamonds because of the atrocities associated with the diamond trade. It's telling that when you look into buying a 'clean' diamond, there's very little information available. I've recently ran across an online discussion on this topic where different sides were presented, and after reading it, I'm doubly glad of our decision.

Here's a picture of the ring

The sidestones came from a ring that my grandmother gave me a long time ago. It was a terribly ugly ring with a large emerald in the center, surrounded by diamonds in a "cocktail ring" style. I'm going to have the rest of the stones from that ring made into a necklace.

13825. marjoribanks - 2/14/2005 6:58:56 AM

Congratulations, pals.

1) If you want diamonds, simply come to India. I promise you that you will get (a) a clean one and (b) will save the cost of your tickets in the bargain.

2) Re: The New Yorker. I am the only subscriber to the Magazine in the Konkan, and get regular letters requesting me to report on the state of the magazine (excellent, though two weeks late) when it arrives on the hillside. It is a kind of Yank-culture-NYC-mainlined lifeline. I have read it religiously for twenty years, and like it better now than before though the cartoon quality has regressed a bit. It's simply the best English-language weekly in the world, possibly also the best managazine period. What it was? Bah. Focus on what it still is.

13826. wabbit - 2/14/2005 7:32:14 AM

Congratulations, Res and Woden!

13827. Magoseph - 2/14/2005 12:13:44 PM

Posts 13815 and 13816 from my son’s trip will be moved to Escapes later along with others—here they interfered with the conversation.

13828. Magoseph - 2/14/2005 3:44:18 PM

Morning exchange at our house:
“I’m going to shave now and then, I’ll give you two kisses.”
“What, are you doling them out now?
“Those are special for today”
“Oh, why?”
Hello and Happy Valentine Day to all!

13829. PsychProf - 2/14/2005 4:37:39 PM

Congrats to Res and Woden...best of everything to you, and a long lifetime to enjoy such.

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