Filed under: HEFFERNAN
by Brian Heffernan
Look familiar? Jesse? Joey?
I have a fantasy about flying to a new city carrying only a wallet and a toothbrush. I’d be wearing a suit. And sunglasses. Nothing else. Damn, that would be so Brad Pitt. I had my chance earlier this month, but good sense got the better of me.
I uprooted from mid-Missouri and headed to San Francisco. A job made me do it. An offer from a big-city mag trumped staying with a smaller regional magazine—standard food chain politics. (Besides, sticking around Missouri is so summer-of-’08.)
Filed under: HEFFERNAN
by Brian Heffernan
I cruise the magazine aisles of a newsstand at the Vienna train station. I’m looking for something unique to Eastern Europe. Something I can brag about to the magazine nerds I roll with back home. But everything I pass is either a Euro-version of an American standard — Rolling Stone, Time, Cosmo — or simply not in English.
A red cover catches my eye down the next aisle. It’s an ominous image of silhouetted military men in front of the Chinese flag. The English headline reads, “Don’t Be Scared of China.” It’s called GOOD magazine, and I’ve never heard of it before. I pick it up and flip to the masthead. Published in Los Angeles. How exotic.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that GOOD, which released its 12th issue, on magazine stands this month, has a recurring problem with its content being completely outdone by its outstanding, witty design.
Filed under: HEFFERNAN
by Brian Heffernan
At age three, I could have rattled off the names of all the native snakes of Missouri, about 15 different earth-mover trucks, and every player on the 1987 Cardinals baseball team. I hadn’t even learned to read. My parents and older siblings quizzed me with homemade flashcards. They found my intense interest in these unrelated subjects hilarious. There’s a home movie of it. It’s embarrassing.
Today I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a bullsnake and a kingsnake, but I could talk at length about the crazy history of breakfast cereal in the United States. (I won’t spoil it, but it involves Christian fundamentalists, Walt Disney and deceiving consumers.) I’ve always been a know-it-all, and I love telling little-known stories. That’s probably why I was attracted to journalism. That’s also probably why I think that mental_floss magazine is da bomb.
