Me And Magazines.

Sassy, 1988-1996.

Jane, 1997-2007.

Budget Living, 2003-2006.

And the latest victim: Organize, 2007-2008.

Now, I love magazines. We all do. In my younger days, the most exciting day of the week was coming home and seeing that Dad had left out my shiny new Entertainment Weekly. I'd read it cover to cover immediately, not understanding 2/3 of it but not caring a whit.

MAGAZEEEEEN!!!

And I won't lie: I kept my Highlights subscription well past when it was probably appropriate to do so. (Aside: What the hell kind of name is Goofus?)

Nowadays, I subscribe to multiple periodicals, $10 meaning a little less to my 31-year-old self than that junior-high-$5-a-week-allowanced kid. Neil and I decided we could each have three subscriptions, and (okay, I cheated a little...four or five for me) Real Simple, Simple Scrapbooks, Entertainment Weekly, Nylon (I don't pay--Lily did that for me), and Figure come regularly to my door. I love them all. But I don't race upstairs, throw myself on the bed, and read them the minute I get home. In fact, to my shame, I have a huge green IKEA box of backlogs.

But Organize, now. Organize gets read.

I can't even remember what got me into it...maybe I saw it in B&N as we were making our Magazine Decisions, picked it up to try, and got sucked in then and there.

Whatever it was, it doesn't matter now. Nothing does. And I like you, Real Simple, I do. Your simple, light photographs...your matte cover...your ultra-thick thickness...they're gorgeous. But you're a little too polished for me. I am, make no question, glad you come to me. I like having you. But you're not the same.

They tell us they'll be continuing our subscription with some "appropriate" substitute. I've been down that road before, guys. Was Good Housekeeping a suitable sub for Budget Living? NO, it wasn't. When Jane folded, and sent me the same letter, I nipped that one in the bud by calling to get my $2.56 of the remaining year back before they could subject me to Lucky or whatever else Conde Nast needed subscribers to.

I have kept my backlog of Janes and Budget Livings, because I want to make them last. I have too many magazines to reread many of them (although I do keep the ones that I like), so it will be with a heavy heart that I read these dated magazines and put them away in the dank little corner I put all my old Week-after-the-Oscars coverage magazines. But they will be in good company. All the old Sassys are there, all the Janes and Budget Livings before them, and now, Organizes...and all the environmental fanatics in the world can't make me recycle an article interviewing the new It Actor, baby-faced Ethan Hawke.

I've now begun to read ShopSmart, but I hesitate to start anything else new, because it looks like I am Quirky-and-Enjoyable-Magazine Poison. If it's a bimonthly magazine, aimed at people my age, that has nothing (or very little) to do with fashion...and my name is on your subscriber list...you might as well call it a day. Should I just throw in the towel now and subscribe to magazines I know will stand the test of time, like the aforementioned Good Housekeeping? Time? Rolling Stone? Newsweek? Even....even VOGUE, for God's sake? Hell, maybe it'll work in my favor, and they'll all shut down. (Even as I say this, I wonder if GH is any good. Anyone? Anyone with advice?)

Also, I really liked Rosie O'Donnell's magazine, the one that replaced McCall's. I never subscribed, so I didn't include it above, but that was another one that might have tasted my poison and succumbed.




P.S. Blogger, I have accidentally deleted photos in many, many posts. Please, please introduce an Undo feature. Here's a Mars bar, with my thanks in advance.


It's even deep-fried. Doesn't that sound disgustingly delicious?? I kind of want to make this happen on my next Cheat Day.

(another P.S. to the existing P.S...
Don't "Thanks in Advance"s seem kind of patronizing? Like "I'm going to pretend to ask you to do this for me, but I'm really expecting it, so do it, THANKS!")


P.P.S. How come Blogger seems to be auto-correcting my typing so there's only one space after my periods? If there's ONE thing I know about punctuation, Blogger, it's TWO SPACES AFTER THE PERIODS.

P.P.P.S. Look what I found in my archives, from way back in March. A foreshadowing?

"Am loving my new "Organize" magazine. Every page makes me excited. I have a propensity for falling in love with and subscribing to magazines that get cancelled, though (Sassy, Jane, Budget Living) so I hope I don't jinx this one"