I am clearly bored once again today, so on to, as they say “more about me.” Earlier I listed “Favorites,” but I left out my favorite magazine, The New Yorker.
It is rare when I ever characterize anything as “the best,” but I think The New Yorker is the best magazine ever. Now, if you haven’t heard of it, I’m tempted to be facitious, but I’m a relative polite fellow, so I’ll just suggest you either go to the magazine’s website, or Wikipedia.
That the publication has extraordinary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, reviews, political commentary and for you Playboy readers, cartoons, among other genres, goes without saying. It has a wonderfully rich history, which I recommend to you in the form of Here at the New Yorker, by Brendan Gill.
Now, the New Yorker’s been around considerably longer than I have; it started in 1925. For me, it started in 1958, when I was 15.
I grew up in a family that was, well, intellectually oriented, but without a touch of snobbery, egalitarianism or arrogance. We were required to speak a foreign language at dinner, it was almost always French, as I, being the oldest, was given a choice…well, I was the only child at the time, age three. By the time I was six or seven, I was fluent and still am.
Around the age of 12, my parents thrust a New Yorker into my lap and “suggested” that I start reading, as we would be discussing one article a week at the dinner table. Fortunately, it was my choice and within a year I was looking forward to each new issue.
When I went away to college they gave me my own subscription, so I suppose I’ve a subscriber for about 50 years.
Admittedly, I’m always about two weeks behind on reading the magazine, though each week I do read the opening column, “Talk of the Town;” and I don’t believe I’ve ever read every article in a single issue.
But every week, when the New Yorker arrives, I think I’m as interested as much as I was when I was 15, if not more so, and every week, I’m reminded (though I don’t need the chord to struck), how fortunate I am to have had such great parents.
