2 Magazines

To my surprise, Playboy did a nice little redesign with the Feb. issue, and for the most part it looked really good. Included in the redesign were a couple of new departments, nice updates of old ones (it is about time they used color images in Grapevine and the Interview) and just gave the issue a sleeker, more modern look. My only concern was the moving of the Forum (which is the political section) to the very back...I worry that may mean it is being fazed out, which would be a huge mistake.

As far as content, a good solid issue. A goodbye to the Girls Next Door, a very nice look at the cars of the year, and a fantastic piece of short fiction by Jess Walter called Helpless Little Thing. An excellent short story and one of the reasons I read Playboy is for fiction like this. The interview with Hugh Laurie (House) was good too.

February's National Geographic delved more into Charles Darwin and evolution. And I love that it is bringing this science to the forefront at a time when we have gone through an era in this country of rejecting science. Reading the articles about Darwin and evolution you wonder how anyone can really reject this. The other two articles that were fascinating to me were Escaping North Korea and Sicily's Mummies. The North Korea article was so humane and real, and it was sad and hopeful at the same time. And the mummy article...it was just macabre. So strange and weird, that the priests and monks would be preserved like that, their bones being cared for in the catacombs and crypts.