3 Magazines

Plenty was the first of the magazines. I have enjoyed Plenty, however, I am not renewing my subscription. They changed format a bit in the middle of the subscription, and seemed to phase out some of their general interest/conservation articles. What they were left with was still good, but not as compelling. I am interested in making my life greener, but it seemed more designed to sell products than to inform. I will keep the issues I have as a resource, especially this last issue that dealt with building a greener house. But as it tried to pack in more products it also got a smaller font that is sometimes barely readable. All in all, I think they should have kept the former format.

Playboy for August was very good. A great piece by Mickey Edwards on how the government protects itself from the people (kinda opposite from how it is supposed to be), and a nice Ben Stiller interview. And a really scary true piece about James Keene, convicted of a drug offence and given a chance for early release if he went undercover at a prison for the criminally insane to try to get a confession from a serial killer. The second part in the noir novel, Nobody Move was really good to.

But the best magazine this month was Nat Geo. The August issue was everything I love about this publication. Every article was top notch, especially the cover story about ancient Iran, Inside a Nation's Persian Soul. This should be required reading for everyone in the federal government. It would highlight why there is a need for a strong diplomatic corp (that has been gutted by this administration). How can we learn about other people if we have no understanding of where they came from and who they are? How can we hope to deal with this ancient culture that makes ours look like the blink of an eye, if we don't understand some basics about them? The next article was also fantastic about Africa's Bioko Island...what great images and illustrations. Amazing subject. And the article about Moscow was great too, if not a little scary. The amount of money that is there is daunting, but especially when you think about if it goes belly up ever (like when oil bottoms out) this country will be dangerous in their need. And the other two articles were great too! LOL!