In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

I have no idea when, if ever, I'm going to catch up. I still don't understand how I've fallen so far behind. I'm skipping the fiction, but then I almost never read that anyway.

It's not a race, friend! Reading TNY should be nourishment for the writer's/reader's soul.

[serious crayons]

What if you were to do what I do, which is go through the lagging issues (except instead of six, for me it's probably 30), rip out the articles you want to read and recycle the rest? Then staple those articles individually and put them in a manila folder and plan to take them to lunch and work your way through them?

Don't follow my next step, however, which is set the manila folder aside, forget where you even put it, then go back to it only when you're doing the next purge and get rid of the ones that no longer seem relevant -- no further back than Obama's first term, for example.   

 

[Front-Ranger]

Winona is a cool old small river town in Minnesota, birthplace of Winona Ryder (who was named after the town, not the other way around  ).

What a coincidence. R. and I were talking about his late wife's collection, (she collected everything) and there is a postcard collection of scenic views of Winona, Minnesota.

[Jeff Wrangler]

What if you were to do what I do, which is go through the lagging issues (except instead of six, for me it's probably 30), rip out the articles you want to read and recycle the rest? Then staple those articles individually and put them in a manila folder and plan to take them to lunch and work your way through them?

I tried that sort of thing with other publications years ago and found it unsatisfactory. I also don't see how that would help me catch up. If I went back to read the articles I had saved, then I wouldn't be reading the current ones.

I guess part of my problem is that lately there have been a great many articles I actually want to read. I know I could skip the pre-election political articles, but I'm finding it interesting to read what writers had to say before the election compared to what has actually happened.

At least my magazines are arriving on time--for now.

[Jeff Wrangler]

As far behind as I am, I jumped ahead to read Lawrence Wright's "The Plague Year" in the current (Jan. 4 & 11) issue. It's positively gripping to me. The stories I'm learning that never made the news "down here."

Example (I'm sure Paul knows this one):

The governor of Massachusetts arranged to buy 3 million N95 masks from China. When they got to the Port of New York, the feds seized them (I think Trump offered the Chinese more money). Then the governor managed to quietly get 1.2 million masks from China. The owner of the New England Patriots (football team) essentially snuck them into Boston on the team's private plane, and the Massachusetts National Guard was at Logan Airport to take them safely into the state's possession.

[Front-Ranger]

I thought about reading that, but I'm not ready to tackle a 40-page article!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I thought about reading that, but I'm not ready to tackle a 40-page article!

Understandable.

Just me, I know, but I'm finding it so engrossing that I'd read it in one sitting if I had the time.

[serious crayons]

Good to know! Its length scared me off, too, and also it looked kind of dutiful. But based on what you've said here (and how the duty is even more intense now) I'll give it a shot.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was interested to learn that one of the people who has now quit the White House is a man named Matthew Pottinger. I believe he worked for the National Security Council (?).

He figures prominently--in a good way--in the Wright article.

The article is giving me a much better and higher opinion of Deborah Birx, too.

[serious crayons]

Anyone want to speculate on what the next cover will look like?