I first heard about this magazine from my friend Ailish’s then-boyfriend, Dave (this was sometime in 1993, I would guess). Dave fancied himself an artiste: he typed his novel on a portable Underwood, loved Henry Miller and read Harper‘s. I liked him, but was always confused by his pretensions since he didn’t really fit the bill. But regardless, when we visited, I always read his Harper’s. I very quickly got hooked on it and have been subscribing ever since.
Harper’s is another one of those magazines that I don’t immediately get excited about receiving because there’s always the possibility that there will be five really long articles that I want to read in it. And who has the time for all of that? Perversely, I am secretly delighted when there is only one story that I want to read in that month’s issue. But I know that if I’m going to read something in it, it will be good.
Clearly the high point of the magazine is Harper’s Index. The index is a list of various statistics. The gimmick, if you will is that everything is written in such a way that the answer can be given in a numerical value. for example: “Amount the ABBA tribute band Bjorn Again says it was paid to play a concert for Vladimir Putin in January (2009): $27,500; Estimated street value of drugs seized last March at three Phish reunion shows in Hampton, Virginia: $1,200,000.” (more…)
I Just Read About That... 