Editor’s Journal

As the reality of the news is increasingly violent and the banality of reality TV is incomprehensible, I find myself turning more and more to the printed word. Reading has always been a passion and when I was younger, I read for pleasure and education. Rarely these days do I read for edification and I seek more and more to amuse and or distract myself from what is going on in the world around me.

There are a few newspaper columnists whose work I admire and whose opinions I can read online. While I know there are a great many web logs that often delve deeply and more accurately into current affairs, I cannot seem to make myself read countless online stories. I think it is because I already spend too much time in front of a computer monitor and that keeps me away rather than a desire not to know.

Realizing that hiding my head in the sand is not only immature but would be lead me down the path to stupidly and apathy, I was happy when a magazine called The Week was shoved into my mailbox about six months ago. I have no idea how they got my address, but this slim little magazine collects the best columns and news stories from the previous week, condensing them to edible intelligent bites and presents them to the reader. In this way, I have come back into the fold of the informed and it takes very little time to catch up. Issues are presented from both sides, allowing the reader to determine which argument makes the most sense.

Along with the top news stories of the previous week, the magazine’s editors literally take you around the world with the top stories from Ireland, Spain, etc. Between stories are little statistical factoids with headlines like Boring, but Important. A section of quotes from notables alive and long dead are very entertaining while also edifying. A complete home run for the reader!

Since the only other periodical I currently subscribe to is People, the very antithesis of edifying, I’m happy to say I’m going to stick with The Week. People is my brain cocaine but do I really need to know who Ellen DeGeneres is sleeping with or the trials and tribulations of Brad and Jen?

I really have no defense about being a subscriber to this magazine; it’s just something I have taken for years. But when my subscription runs out this time, I may be finished. These days I seldom know who the people in the pictures are without reading the captions, which suggests they are now reaching for a much younger reader than myself.

Stories about Paul Newman, I’m there, settling in and reading. Who is Lindsay Lohan and does anybody over the age of 25 care about Jessica and Ashlee (please, please somebody stop these parents who give their kids names spelled like this!) Simpson?

One thing I do admire about People is the spare and precise way they review books, music and movies. They can pack more info into fewer words than most any other publication, except for perhaps The Week, which also handles these tasks with economy and just enough information for you to decide if you want to see the flick, buy the book or give the music a listen. Writing is a skill, but writing lucidly with economy is an art I would like to learn.

So there you have it. The tale of two publications—one which provides me information about issues all of us should be aware of—and the other with a lot of useless information that will help me out if I’m ever a contestant on Jeopardy!; provided I can dredge it up from the depths of my brain where scientists tell us everything we ever read is stored. Yikes!

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