Black bear eating from my apple tree, August night, 2012

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Thursday: Magazine Babble--Harper's

Today’s entry deals not with a book, but a magazine—Harper’s. Thought-provoking articles, essays, poetry, fiction, and illustrations abound. The most fun for me is reading “Harper’s Index,” a monthly listing of interesting, startling, sometimes related—and sometimes not—facts, figures, and statistics.  Here’s an example of four (in an index of 40) from October 2010:
Number of Aerial Achievement Medals awarded by the Air Force to drone operators since January 2009: 3,497
Number awarded to pilots of manned aircraft during that time: 1,408
Date that United Farm Workers began "Take Our Jobs," a campaign asking legal U.S. residents to work as farm laborers: 6/24/10
Number so far who have been willing to do so: 14
Harper’s goes all the way back to the 1850s, and if you subscribe to the print version (as I do), you have access to every single issue (250,000 pages) in their archives online. You may also opt for a digital subscription, but I enjoy the illustrations and photos in print so much, I have to get the actual magazine. The archives are wonderful to explore, especially regarding topics like the US Civil War.
Harper’s "Weekly Review" is available to all free of charge on their website, and cartoons not seen in print are featured here: http://www.harpers.org/ Even if you do not subscribe, I highly recommend checking in with their website regularly (or actually signing up for their weekly review email).

JUST IN: E-book tidbit: Evidently, you can now have your Amazon Kindle signed, just like an actual printed book, at book signings.

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