Ode to the New Yorker

It all began in the spring of 2004. I was helping some friends in a move. "Helping" by writing down what the professional moves put into packing boxes. They were packing the kitchen and each box took a fair amount of time, what with having to wrap all the dishes. I didn't bring any reading material with me, so my friend handed me a copy of the New Yorker. She had picked it up at a newsstand because the cover article was about Israeli settlers and the problems that have cropped up with these fierce Zionists. It was one of those dense 20-page-no-pictures New Yorker articles that goes on and on, but is engaging and fascinating and meaty. I didn't finish it before I had to leave, and had to get an online copy later. But, before I got to that article, I started by reading a profile of a young Illinois state representative who was running for senate. It was the first time I ever heard of Barack Obama. And after I heard him speak at the 2004 DNC convention, I was smitten. (wiping a tear from my eye now.)

I started subscribing to the New Yorker shortly afterwards, and have never let my subscription lapse. I have read a good portion of every New Yorker since then.

Recently, I have been trying to catch up on my New Yorker reading. We were out of town for several weeks in August. By the time we got back, there were three or four waiting for me. And I haven't really caught up since then. This past week, I was in the middle of several issues. I think it was because of where they were located around the house--one near my bed that I read before going to sleep, one in the kitchen that was easy to grab while eating breakfast and lunch, and one in the front room that I would read at random times. That's very different than my normal New Yorker reading pattern. So, I am very happy to report that I have put to rest the issues I was simultaneously reading.

This is how I usually read a New Yorker. I first look at the cover art. More on that later. Then, I browse the table of contents to see what I have to look foward to. I must read sequentially: I start with the first tidbit in Talk of the Town and go to the cartoon caption contest on the last page. When I first started getting it in the mail, I obsessively read it from cover to cover. I have gotten to the point where I can skip articles now after I have read at least the first little bit of them. I often skip the theater and music reviews at the end. And I rarely read the fiction or Shouts and Murmers, the humor page. AJ skips around. He'll glance at one article, start reading another, and he usually always starts with Shouts and Murmers. No, not me. I like being systematic in my New Yorker reading.

Ok, about the covers. Mostly they are interesting and tied to some current event. It was fun to see the New Yorker in the news a while back with the infamous Barack-and-Michelle-as-terrorists-and-flag-burners cover. (I thought the tumult was way overblown about that, by the way. ) The anniversary issue always has a man in a top hat with a monocle, the classic New Yorker image, and this year's--in the middle of primary season-- had a double image of Barack and Hillary. I have been saving covers that I really like for a while now, and a few years back, AJ took a few of them to make me a collage of covers. It's hanging in our office now. And I still need to frame a cover I put up top from November 2006 of a man sitting on a mountain of books reading. I want to hang it in my reading corner.

When I think back on my New Yorker reading, there are so many great articles that spring to mind: the inner working of UPS, the wonders and craziness of Dubai, a portrait of short cooks in Las Vegas, the series on climate change by Elizabeth Kolbert, the coverage of Iraq including the abominable US treatment of Iraqi's who assisted us (i.e., translators and the like), the immigration holding center in Texas where families are detained, the Pluto-as-planet? controversy. I could go on and on. The writers are top notch--some of my favorites, in addition to Kolbert, are Malcolm Gladwell, Jeffrey Toobin, and Atul Gawande. I love the New Yorker because the content is not really about current events, although there is some of that of course. It's just interesting and engaging topics that I would probably never learn about it other ways. The people profiled spring to life from their pages.

I have been getting emails and seeing the magazine advertisements about the New Yorker festival which just happened in NYC. Events are scattered around the city, with talks, panels, and readings. Oooh. I dream about going someday.

I always tend to gush when I meet a fellow New Yorker reader. I immediately feel like we're kindred spirits and I tend to talk non-stop about the New Yorker until I realize what I'm doing and get embarrassed. I have daydreamed about crosstabbing the New Yorker subscriptions with the church's MLS data base to get a list of Mormon New Yorker readers in my area because wouldn't we all want to get together for dinner? And couldn't we all be great friends?

As a final indicator of my New Yorker geekiness: Every time I see the complete New Yorker on portable hard drive (including every page of every issue from February 1923), I get excited. I covet. My practical self says I wouldn't do much of anything with it. But that doesn't make the hunger for it dissipate at all. Even if I just browsed the cover art, wouldn't it be worth it? Wouldn't it????

Well, the politics issue hit my mail box this week. I think I'm going to go snuggle up in my bed and crack the cover.