Take it easy

1970s covers of Easy Riders motorcycle magazine. Dude, don't tell me these beautiful women actually dated the men pictured. It's like "According to Jim" times 10.

(Via Boing Boing)

Magazine mania

My pal Lisa has a money-saving blog in the online San Francisco Chronicle (hi, Jon!), and she found some really great magazine subscription deals.

Unfortunately, I have little time for magazines since our house acquired a little toddler who loves to rip them up, so not renewing has become a tiny little money-saver for me. But who can beat Lisa's deal ... she canceled her Entertainment Weekly sub, and they offered her a year for $10 just to get her back. Wow!

Magazine mania

Elegant Bride has been shut down. I like this guy's point: Why does Conde Nast need THREE bridal magazines? Apparently, they don't.

Some of the mags on his magazine death watch, though, I'd hate to see go. Domino, Life & Style, and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY?

(Via Romenesko.)

Golden boy

So of course Michael Phelps posed for a Sports Illustrated cover with all his medals on his bare chest, a la Mark Spitz.

But, as the Stranger's Slog points out, sometimes Olympic triumph looks like an ugly halter top.

Best mags for your money

I keep forgetting to link to my MSNBC articles and Test Pattern entries, but here's one I did on the best magazines for your money.

I could have gone on and on about magazines -- it's one of my favorite topics -- but I decided to keep it to five.

Chocolate-chip pancakes!

So do you ever have a bit of your past, something you've read, that just sticks in your head? And even though it's dumb, you itch to re-read it?

Yeah, that happens to me all the time. I was a giant fan of Seventeen magazine in high school (I subscribed for years after that, to keep up on youth culture, but they lost me when they got all People Magazine on me and only put celebs on the cover).

Anyway, I'm looking for an issue of "Seventeen" from the '80s, probably 1982-1987. The only thing I remember about it was that it had a multi-page advertorial, almost certainly for makeup (Cover Girl?) that purported to be a diary by the niece of "Wonder Woman" star Lynda Carter, who apparently was visiting her famous aunt. I'm pretty sure in one entry she surprised her aunt by making chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast.

For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this issue, and am just randomly curious to read it again. I posted an Ask Metafilter thread about it...doubt anyone there will have the specific date of the magazine with only this information, but you never know.

Peculiar funny or ha-ha funny

I love this: Radosh.net is encouraging people to submit really awful captions for the New Yorker cartoon caption contest.

More issues than a magazine subscription

I loved Shinders newsstands in the Twin Cities. They had everything from obscure comics to foreign newspapers and magazines to niche hobby magazines to the latest true-crime books to goofy candy. Nothing in Seattle was like them.

But on my last trip to Minnesota, my friend Bob and I went to the Maplewood Shinders, and it looked like the story was going out of business. Half the shelves were empty and what was there was on sale. I'm not that surprised that trip will turn out to be my last Shinders trip ever.

The Strib has a good piece on the troubling fall of the store's owner.

Gone to the dogs

Sports Illustrated is a damn fine magazine, even if you think you're not a big sports fan.

This article about Michael Vick and the creepy world of dogfighting (written by former PiPress Pulitzer Prize winning writer George Dohrmann) is really only tangentially about sports -- it's about a dark underbelly of American culture, and makes me want to run out and save every maltreated or homeless animal I can find.

You ever get the feeling humanity doesn't deserve the animal kingdom sometimes? Yeah, me too. I bet when the dogs and cats are in charge, they'll treat us way better than we do them. We'll make great pets.

So Sassy

I'm reading this book about "How Sassy Changed My Life." It's full of stuff that interests me, but yet it kind of reads like a college term paper, not like a real book.

Elizabeth Larsen, a friend of mine who used to work with me at Twin Cities Sidewalk, was Jane Pratt's first assistant at Sassy, and it's both fun and jolting to see references to her throughout the book. What an awesome first job to look back on.