Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #85

What magazines do you subscribe to and why? If you don't have any current subscriptions, you can list some of your most recent subscriptions or magazines you want to subscribe to.

Extra Credit: What was your first magazine subscription?

Currently I have just 2 magazine subscriptions: Texas Monthly and Saveur. But I buy a lot of others almost every month. Here are some of them (and I've included hyperlinks to the websites):

Bitch (feminist response to pop culture): OK, for starters I admit I'd love this magazine for the name alone...it's so in your face...but there are plenty of other reasons to love it, starting with the articles. Bitch is published quarterly and not carried everywhere; I buy it at B&N. Also you can go to Bitch on the Web (no, that's not a hyperlink back to my blog).

Cottage Living: I love decorating magazines, and this one is a favorite. It has good photography and great ideas; nothing too fancy.

Discover: I've loved this magazine since it first came out, 25 years ago. With articles on everything from prehistoric pasta to stoneage beer to the physics of bras...what's not to love?

This Old House: I'm a dweeb in some ways, and this is one of them. I loved this show on PBS in the old days, when Bob Vila was still on the air with Nawm, and I STILL love the show on cable, and I love the magazine. What I'd like to know though, is, why do I get the carpenters with missing fingers? Why can't I find a carpenter like Nawm???

More (celebrating women 40+): "Celebrating women 40+" *sigh*...that has a nice ring to it. There's lots to celebrate re women over age 40 (and a certain 41-year-old, red-headed, blue-eyed, hairy chested guy with no tan lines whom I know, um, rather well, would agree) ;p And this magazine does a good job of pointing that out...I mean, that there's much to celebrate generally, in all women over 40...oh, nevermind...just take my word that it's a good magazine.

Oprah: I tried to not like this magazine. You've got to admit, there's something a little...uh...narcissistic about having a magazine with your name and picture on the cover EVERY MONTH, year in and year out, but...it's Oprah...and she's...likeable. And the magazine is interesting to me, year in and year out.

Real Simple: I like the "Problem: yada yada yada. Solution: yada yada yada" pages, and I like the recipes.

Saveur: Kath gave me a subscription to this cool cooking magazine, which has some great recipes and interesting articles.

Texas Monthly: I subscribed to Texas Monthly last spring, when Chris and Alex were coming from Chicago to visit for spring break and I was planning our road trip in which, among other things, we did the Lockhart Barbecue Circuit (yes, there is such a thing in Texas).

There are four BBQ restaurants in Lockhart: Black's, Chisholm Trail (no website), Kreuz Barbecue, and Smitty's Market. It's estimated that about 5,000 people visit these 4 restaurants each week, meaning about 250,000 people each year eat BBQ in Lockhart (dunno if that's accurate, but it's what it says on the web). We sampled at all 4 restaurants and agreed that Black's was the best, but...be that as it may...while planning our road trip, I read detailed accounts of trips to the Texas Barbecue Circuit at Texas Monthly online, after subscribing to gain access to the archives on the website, and subscribing resulted in my receiving the magazine in the mail each month. It was well worth the $15; in addition to great recipes, it has great articles on various road trips around Texas.

Weekend: This magazine is published every other month, and it's a laid-back magazine with good photography, good recipes and travel ideas, and quite a few good, relatively inexpensive decorating ideas in most of the issues. Check it out.

EXTRA CREDIT: What was your first magazine subscription? That would be Stereo Review, back in my audiophile days, when I was 19 and the world was young and so was I...I told you I'm a dweeb sometimes - but not all the time...(just ask the redheaded guy...)