My youngest boy is only twelve and has a twisted sense of humor from years of listening to Weird Al, watching Family Guy and reading MAD Magazine. I admit to doing the latter myself for many years starting at around his age and maybe until my late twenties or so. A guilty pleasure, but who can resist Spy Versus Spy? A couple of years ago for his birthday we gave him a subscription and every single day of the year he runs down to the mailbox to see if there’s a new one…even on the day after he gets the new one, such is his need to get yet another one. The last one came in May and it was the 500th Anniversary issue.
And then we didn’t get it again..not in June, nor July. The website had no information and still featured the last issue and my kid was getting a bit unglued in anticipation. So I wrote them a letter…scratch that…I emailed them an email…and sure enough, MAD is now a quarterly journal. Since they don’t have any advertisers, it’s most likely the higher costs of paper and labor, and the shrinking subscription base that has limited the publication. Yes I know…it’s a recurring theme these days.
But so, here it is a few weeks later and I just saw this news flash on my screen:
Reader’s Digest Association Inc., publisher of the iconic general interest magazine that began gracing American homes in 1922 and now reaches a worldwide audience of 130 million, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as it faces falling print circulation in the Internet age and looming debt payments.
Oh yeah..I did mean what I wrote above. “Flashed on my screen” is how I receive and digest news today.
If you’re of a certain age…say forty to a hundred….you may have grown up with RD in your house. Even if you didn’t, your grandparents sure had it sitting around along with their series of condensed books, box sets of music (from usually the thirties or forties) and maybe historical video series. I used to love reading the Laughter in Uniform and Humor is The Best Medicine sections, as well as the stories of inspiration and courage that they specialized in. Goofy, loopy and far right of center…but as apple pie and motherhood go, Readers Digest was probably one of the last links we had to a time that no longer exists in America today.
As usual, there is no point to this other than it gets so weary everyday to read about the death of anything or anyone. Larry Knechtel passed away over the weekend. I never knew him but there was a time where you couldn’t pick up a record without seeing his name in the credits. The newspaper called him a keyboardist…he was so much more. I was going to list his credits, but it’s easier to just do this and let you look for yourself.
‘Tis the internet age.
The new MAD came today.
