People Who Need People

A magazine for our time -- Picture courtesy People

by blogSpotter
Let me say this right up front. I read People Magazine, and I realize that it's a guilty pleasure -- not an intellectual exercise. I've probably had a subscription since the 80's, and have read it off and on since it started in 1974. The magazine started as a spin-off of TIME, with the idea of expanding the scope of TIME's "People" section. The magazine always offers show business fluff but counters with more serious fare -- political exposes, stories of heroism and a "Coping" section for people coping with serious health or legal problems. My lah-dee-dah friends always have laughed over People -- they ask, "Where is Atlantic Monthly and Men's Health?" I'll have you all know that I subscribe to a variety -- National Geographic, TIME, Newsweek, Macworld, Rollins Stone, etc. But guess what? The magazine that people will arm-wrestle over is People. In ma maison, nobody has to be pretentious. Read what you want.

OK, I must admit -- I’ll periodically look at National Enquirer or even Weekly World News at the checkout counter. Kirstie Alley’s weight fluctuations and Katie Holmes’ weird relationship with Tom Cruise beckon me to read. Would never have these as my information mainstays for the same reason I don’t watch hours of Jerry Springer or chow down on Ho Ho’s. Neither am I pretentious enough to say that I subscribe exclusively to things like Utne Reader or National Review. I want to be informed, but dammit it’s important to know that Leonardo DiCaprio ran up a $20,000 bar tab. If nothing else, these topics can give you a segue into cocktail party conversations.

Magazine content has now made me think of TV content. I have some Unitarian friends who turned their TV into an aquarium. Another couple insists they only watch TV for news and the History Channel. Well, take your delicate tastes and silky drawers elsewhere my Unitarian friends. In my house, the TV schedule will cover the gamut from reruns of Newlywed Game to something high brow like McLaughlin Group. On Saturdays, I hate to say that the Wiggles or the Doodlebops could make an appearance. You can’t control what comes on while you’re heating a microwave dinner or busy reading People.

I am a smart fellow. I am a fellow smart. (Say that 10 times, quickly). I don’t feel the need to impress people with champagne taste or reading material. A well-rounded, and let me say fun individual should have the flexibility to go from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. I may put down People to read War and Peace, you never know. For the moment, an episode of Grey’s Anatomy plays on my non-aquarium 52” TV set, as I thumb thru the People section on Picks and Pans,

© 2007 blogSpotter