The New Yorker (links to the demise of a once great and noble institution) magazine has in part been a not insignificant component of the shaping of my world view-similar to a childhood friend in a way.That may sound nerdy sad and lonely but to anyone who spent their formative years in New York City it is well understood as a perfectly standard NYC upbringinging.
Our family are as near to being archetypal native New Yorkers as is possible. Our family home was at 220 Central Park South-directly opposite Central Park, for over forty years. CPS is the heart of Manhattan, running from Columbus Circle to 5th Avenue-it is where the horse drawn Hansom cabs park for out of towners to recall.
CPS was also the heart of fashionable liberalism-another unique NYC aspect. It was John Lindsay's "Silk Stocking" (so named for the shape) district, for which he was straight out of central casting-NYC's JFK as it were.
At the lobby entrance to our building where the mail drop was guarded by the doormen there was always a big pile of New Yorker magazines ready to be sorted and pigeonholed. And what was there not to like about the magazine?
The New Yorker in those days was witty, urbane, clever. It had a subtle, thoughtful social/political commentary which was never rude or loud. This included the cover too which was always of the highest quality. Great writers old and new, Capote, Updike, Nabokov, Salinger...well the list is endless, graced the pages, but for many, and especially myself, it was the cartoonists that were most looked for.
The New Yorker was a "Hall of Fame" of cartoonists of both the general humor and satirical kind. Saul Steinberg, James Thurber, Peter Arno, Charles Adams are just a few of the great names of cartooning who brought both visual and cerebral delight.
The magazine was, on reflection, a positive shaping element.This was more than just because the Eisenhower/Kennedy years were more sedate, rather that the old fashioned liberalism of the magazine's tone reflected an open, courtly and positive liberalism. I believe holding to this attitude today is no anachronism for a "recovering liberal". I believe it fits in perfectly well with the now holder of a Palin world view (as I see it). Concern for the disadvantaged, which is to be remedied by a small government acting as a social guarantor, and living within its means, and with a strong foreign policy, were the hallmarks of the Eisenhower/Kennedy years prior to LBJ and are pure Palinism today.
It is deeply saddening to see the depths to which this once venerable magazine has sunk as it embraces all the grossly negative aspects of the modern liberal left.The absolute garbage which is the ranting of their "television critic" as she "reviews" Palin's TLC Alaska documentary, exceeds even the lowest of the overtly leftist trash on execrable blogs like Gawker, which makes no pretense of being anything but a trash site.
What does denigrating Palin's daughter, putting thoughts into her head which ridicule her mother, have to do with the quality of the program? Since when does a television critic expound a personal political agenda? How could the editors allow this trashy partisanship to see the light of day? What does this sentence have to do with what was once a noble institution
"When they arrive back home, Palin attempts to poison Piper’s little mind with her mean-girl attitude"
What do the editors possibly have to gain by running this sort of "review". Are they in such deep circulation problems that they have to resort to (which failed miserably) the sort of anti-Palin gimmick that Newsweek did with their notorious running shorts cover? New York is so deeply blue that they are preaching to the choir, certainly no ones mind would be changed reading such slanted material.
No, it is all so very sad. It is like seeing a childhood friend end up on drugs, and sleeping rough. On the positive side it goes to reinforce to my mind that the progress I have made from liberal to conservative is correct. The liberal left today is unrecognisable to me in all its perverse grossness-allied to a disgusting elitism. I would frankly consider myself less of a person if I was still a 'liberal".
This is no place for cursing, no reason to stoop to their level. However, for those who loved the old New Yorker the wonderful Linotype errors, which were placed at the end of the serious articles, will suffice as a sad imprecation at those who have let such a wonderful institution fall to the dust to cope with their Palin fear and hatred "etoin shrdlu shrdlu shrdlu".
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