A thread in Motoring inspired this one.
So many magazines have disappeared over the years, or the quality/content has changed to a shadow of it's former glory.
I used to enjoy Punch (mainly for for the cartoons), some of the computer mags and a car mag or two - and even bits of Reader's Digest, especially the little jokey bits at the end of articles.
My only sub these days is to Private Eye which I still enjoy.
I've tried the Oldie but can't quite "connect" with it. Viz has some amazingly funny bits but also some amazingly stupid bits, and therefore isn't worth the cover price IMO (I am slowly completing the Profanisaurus collection through 2nd hand eBay). While I am interested in economics, politics, and world stuff I'm happy with free stuff I can read on line.
What do other people read?
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Lapham's Quarterly for me - you can read a fair number of articles on the web if you don't want the full papery experience.
Also Cabinet magazine, same applies.
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I haven't bought one for years. Motorcycling and cycling magazines are little more than consumer reviews, everything of interest on any sport or hobby is now available online. Computer mags used to be essential reading in the early days of home computers, now I can't remember the last time I even flicked through one on the shelf despite spending twelve hours a week working in a newsagents.
I do flick through Private Eye, but it now seems rather tame compared to it's heyday. When was the last time it broke a big story?
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Fri 19 Jun 15 at 10:43
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I've read Private Eye for about fifty years, and seldom missed an issue. I've been a subscriber now for a couple of years.
The front half is still very good: I'm less enamored of the funny pages, except for the cartoons, and I find the serious business pages at the end fairly intense.
I've read the Daily Telegraph for about as long, since my class teacher said I needed to be able to say I read a serious newspaper at University interviews.
I subscribe now, to save money. Until I took the DT, our family's choice was the Daily Express.
Neither of these is the paper it once was!
I look at the Guardian and Mail online on most mornings, and occasionally the Independent, so I think I get a balanced view of the world.
I look at the Spectator from time to time.
For nostalgic reasons I subscribe to my local independent daily newspaper - still a family business - but again, it's not a patch on its former self.
Regional and local newspapers are a dying breed.
Neil
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Only subscription I've ever had is the late lamented Car and Car Conversions. Not that I had their type of car but it was a refreshing read where people were doing things with hands, and not writing cheques!
But there are magazines arriving at SP towers as a consequence of being a member. In particular order, they are:
The Bulletin (Morgan Three Wheeler Club)
Miscellany (Morgan Sports Car Club)
E&T (Institution of Engineering and Technology)
Countryside (NFU Countryside)
Radcom (Radio Society of Great Britain - yes I am a licensed radio amateur)
What's Brewing (CAMRA newspaper)
Beer (CAMRA magazine, quarterly)
National Trust Magazine (3 times a year)
Keeps me off the streets!
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Modern Railways every month, mostly for the regular contributors. Roger Ford's 'Informed Sources' and Alan Williams's off beat column. Recent recruit Ian Walmsley's 'Pan up' is usually worth a read too. And there's always at least one or two news/feature articles of interest.
Went through a phase last year of picking up Radio User but a lot of its content, listener reports etc, soon feels repetitive.
There's an occasional publication, I think from the house of 'Aeroplane' magazine, on Classic Airliners looking at one type's history etc.
There was also something similar called Airliner Classics which covered similar ground but with several contrasting articles in each edition. To me that was a prime example of why so many modern attempts at the magazine genre fail. The basic idea was brilliant but the writing wasn't that good. A sometimes hazy or plain wrong grasp of fact/history and difficult to follow narrative. Lovely archive pictures spoiled by sloppy captions. One that sticks in mind was of a Dan Air Viscount said to be at East Midlands in winter 1979. Trees in full leaf and the words 'Lydd Airport' on the steps told the real story....
Occasionally buy flying, walking or shipping mags if a particular cover picture piques my interest.
Motoring wise I loved Diesel Car in its early days under the editorship of John Kerswill. An esoteric mix of usual road tests, technical etc but with addition of Phil Llwellyn on travel, a column by Stuart Bladon and items on taxi and light commercial issues. Went downhill afterwards though the most recent iteration seems better.
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If you're a library member chances are you can get unlimited free magazines through Zinio if you're prepared to read them on a tablet / PC. (The only 2 I read are MBR and Runner's World), neither of which I'd pay for otherwise).
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I don't buy any can get everything online. Have a look through some second hand ones. A couple of car mags and a couple of shooting magazines. Wouldn't pay for them though.
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Haven't had a subscription since Fast Lane in the 80s. Used to buy Loaded regularly in the 90s, for its first few years it was truly brilliant, then it turned in to a mere soft porn publication.
I tend to buy Viz when I've got time to kill at an airport or suchlike. Not recommended reading in public though, it frequently gives me an outburst of uncontrollable giggles.
High brow, aren't I?
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Tried viz a couple of times, didn't get it at all. I couldn't see what was funny. Humour very subjective though.
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I read BBC's Focus, technology and science stuff. Trouble is in recent years I think they've dumbed it down and the way articles are written and the language used seems a little, I don't know, youthy? aimed at the kidz? It's as is they're afraid to put scientific wording in it in case readers are put off. Plus, its full of ads. Funny that BBC doesn't advertise yet its magazines are rammed...
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Daily comic, Private Eye every fortnight, occasional NS or Spectator, occasional yellow tabloid rag or Grauniad, electronic media.
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London Review of Books. I like the mix of reviews, some literary and some managing to cover quite a lot of contemporary national and international current events and politics. Poetry too, which I seldom read otherwise. It has an excellent on-line archive. I like its "buy one, get one free" policy and a friend was grateful when I was able to give him a free year's subscription.
I am however a little puzzled that it runs a cake shop in London. A lefty thing, maybe?
Overall, it is a bit daunting for my tired brain and I will ask for a sub to the New Yorker, come Christmas.
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>> London Review of Books.
Tsk. I'd forgotten that I see the smug LRB quite often, the NYRB sometimes and the New Yorker quite often.
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I get The Railway Magazine, Model Rail and The Hornby Magazine every month. Ali, my supplier at the Post Office delights in shouting across the busy shop " Ted, your HORNY magazine is here "
Swm used to get ' Delicious ' a cookery mag. Now, she likes the Radio Times.
We get The Camping and Caravan Club mag plus the Monthly Jowett Car Club mag...The Jowetteer, which also comes on-line now. Morning and evening papers soon fill up the blue bin every fortnight !
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>> We get The Camping and Caravan Club mag
As well as the purchased mags I mentioned I also get the aravan and Camping Club and Caravan Club mags. Also the magazine formerly known as Cycletouring published by the CTC.
Mrs B gets various teaching publications, mostly from the Association for Science Education of which she's an active member, and stuff from the British Double Reed Society (club for fans of the Bassoon, Oboe and related instruments).
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"What do other people read?"
Subscriptions to Private Eye, The Biologist and Canoe Focus. Telegraph online (no subscription) and The Wail for light entertainment.
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Monthly Dalesman, subscription paid for by elderly Aunt as Xmas present, who then gets my copy. Strider magazine, quarterly as part of being an LDWA member ( London distance walkers assoc).
Until fairly recently I subscribed to TGO ( the Great Outdoors) and for many years subscribed to a monthly Wanderlust & CAR.
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SWMBO buys the local rag on Fridays - £1.00 for crap stuff and adverts!
Otherwise we eschew the MSM printed word these days.
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So, no one's owned up to any "Grown up" magazines yet?
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>> "Grown up" magazines
Er... deprived adolescent magazines you mean? Ass'n'tit shots?
Does anyone here remember 'underground comics' from back in the day? Robert Crumb, almost a great artist actually, used to do comic strips and one-offs of unparalleled, often hilarious obscenity. Another artist was Gilbert Shelton, whose Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers were great favourites of mine for reasons I am too shy to mention.
Seems to me the young are too serious these days, and too frivolous at the same time. Gripe gripe grumble grumble my young day etc etc...
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 19 Jun 15 at 17:35
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Fritz the Cat was a cartoon strip I recall, which I'd thought was in Oz but the Wiki on it implies it was a stand-alone comic.
There are mags out there now which moght make your auntie blush but generally speaking we are all rather more immune to being shocked by anything in print (aren't we?) than in the 60s and 70s..
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Who needs Readers' Wives when there is XHamster?
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Who remembers Fiona Richmond?
(*_~)
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>> Who remembers Fiona Richmond?
>>
>> (*_~)
>>
One of the current owners of West Ham United certainly does. She came to a tragic end I believe, Suicide.
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Really? I didn't even know she was dead.
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>> Really? I didn't even know she was dead.
>>
She isn't. In fact she's not even ill.
I was thinking of someone else whose name I can't recall.
Sorry Fiona.
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I admit to one look at a Playboy at the age of 18, goodness me, that's 35 years ago. It featured my then passion, Farrah Fawcett-Majors. It was somehow disappointing.
Since then of course, the Internet is definitely the place to be if you really want to read Norman Mailer articles.
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>>I admit to one look at a Playboy at the age of 18, goodness me, that's 35 years ago
Dec 1995 apparently. 20 years ago.
Something gone wrong there, I think. A second childhood or are you mis-remembering the red swimsuit picture?
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Strangely enough, went into the local convenience store at Have Des Pas, Jersey, last week, to pick up a paper. They had half a dozen 'top shelf' titles, something which I haven't seen in any newsagents for several years.
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Well there's a thing, Mark. It was, for entertaining and exciting reasons to do with embarrassment on purchase I therefore won't go into, absolutely definitely in 1980. Perhaps they re-ran it 15 years later?
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Crankcase, I don't know what to tell you. I feel I am tearing down a memory here, although perhaps you could elaborate on the embarrassment?
1980;
Amy Miller
Michele Drake
Candace Collins
Bo Derek
Shari Shattuck
Terri Welles
Dorothy Stratten
Sandra Dumas
Rita Lee
S. J. Fellows
Mardi Jacquey
Gig Gangel
Sandy Cagle
Henriette Allais
Liz Glazowski
Martha Thomsen
Ola Ray
Teri Petersen
Victoria Cooke
Lisa Welch
Mardi Jacquet
Jeana Tomasino
Suzanne Sommers
Melonie Haller
Silvana Suarez
Eveyln Guerrero
Lisa Lyon
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Baffled. I remember it as clear as day. I hope I never need to be a witness to anything.
Bought it on the platform at St Pancras, just after my eighteenth birthday. I was in London to take the Civil Service exam. The girl on the till challenged me. "Are you sure you're eighteen"? I knew I looked younger, so coloured up like a beetroot and stammered " I was eighteen three days ago". Then she started to look for a manager, the woman behind me tutted and sighed, and to my joy the till lady placed it a brown paper bag and took my money., which I think was something horrendous like £3.95, a huge amount.
I was simultaneously elated, ashamed and embarrassed and the whole experience was unpleasant. Then I had the smuggle the damn thing home, and look at it that night. It did absolutely nothing for me, wasn't what I had thought (I don't what I expected) and the next day chucked it at the bottom of the bin and tried never to think about it or anything similar ever again. It was, however, the red swimsuit. I thought.
Since you ask.
However, this is clearly all a false memory, now faced with the facts. I can only now imagine I did buy a Playboy, have forgotten entirely the actual contents, then became aware of the red swimsuit pics later somehow and conflated it all into the psychological millstone described above.
It'll probably turn out I was born in China now and raised by Alsatians.
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When the News of The Screws published their last edition we sold our entire (Increased)allocation in just over an hour and got another delivery at about 9:30. Most of them went too, mainly to people who thought they'd become collectors items. One guy bought seven copies. They are still for sale on ebay now, many at 99p with no bids. I've never seen one that actually sold.
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>> So, no one's owned up to any "Grown up" magazines yet?
>>
I'd own up to that before I ever admitted to buying Caravan Fancier and Fetishist Monthly (if the van's rockin' don't come knockin'), or whatever it is.
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I am fortunate to get a continuous supply of 'New Scientist' from a subscriber who gets tax relief on their subscription. I then reliably pass on to to other deserving recipients, including hospital/doctor waiting rooms.
Surprising spread of the content - even Mrs S reads them sometimes.
Surprised there appear to be no other readers here.
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You've just reminded me actually Sherlock, I used to have a subscription to the New Scientist.
Many moons ago though.
Which? too at one point, and some metal detecting magazine, the Treasure Hunter I believe.
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Miscellany
Which?
Caravan Club magazine
AA magazine
all come through the door.
£2/wk subscription to the Sunday Times as it's cheaper than the walk-up price and I get to peek behind the paywall all week.
I buy Classic Car Weekly every Wednesday. I would subscribe, but as the postman doesn't start work until several hours after I do I'd get it half a day late.
I have a monthly-ish foray to the £1 magazine stall at Loughborough Saturday market. Usually bag a tenner's worth of slightly dated copies of Car, Evo, Octane, Vantage, Trail and occasionally FHM.
Like others here I've always enjoyed reading Viz and Private Eye but not enough to buy them.
Last edited by: Dave_C220CDI on Fri 19 Jun 15 at 22:36
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I used to browse through Asian Babes sometimes in the local newsagents. A fairly explicit girly mag. The owner, a middle aged Hindu widow didn't seem to mind looking at it with me if it was quiet.......memories, memories !
I have a few Mayfairs from about 1974 kept because of the articles on vintage cars and aircraft. I used to cut out some of the cartoons and paste them on the workshop wall for visitors to have a larf !
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>> >> I have a few Mayfairs from about 1974 kept because of the articles on vintage
>> cars and aircraft.
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*Snigger*
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>> 'New Scientist'
We used to get that sometimes... haven't seen it for a while though.
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Growing up in the sixties there was a stash of New Scientists my elder sister had collected in a cupboard, going back years. I used to revel in them, not understanding very much at all, but it sparked a lifelong interest in those kind of subjects.
Today's New Scientist I pick up,from time to time just on the off chance when the cover looks promising, but am nearly always disappointed at the lack of any real depth in most of the articles. But if you flip to a proper science publication like Nature, then it's usually too technical for me to get all that much out of it, not being a scientist.
Also, the old fifties/sixties stuff was still all gadgets and spaceships and star drives, and today's is to me mostly boring stuff like genomes and bioscience.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 20 Jun 15 at 06:20
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Club magazines of the Series II and Triumph 2000. Very occasionally Classic Boat, but they don't have nice old boats anymore, only playthings for billionaires.
Country Life, because it's free from Lloyds, and I didn't want any of the other perks.
And of course Carmarthenshire News from the local authority, which goes straight in the bin.
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Read hifi magazines, what hifi covers generallly all things not as niche as hifi choice, and what hifi seems to recommend the products its advertising in the magazine, listening to music is a subjective opinion and new doesn't mean better.
Autocar, top gear have gone down hill, early 80s 90s autocar and motor used to test cars in which the ordinary motorist can afford, now its like test drive the mclaren ferrari or lambo
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Lately - Rail Magazine. Its been most amusing, Nigel Harris the feature editor has an axe to grind with West Coast Railways, and is getting increasingly shrill and dramatic because no-one is listening to him.
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Had every issue of Practical Classics from about 1981 to the early 90s. Chucked 'em all in the end and stopped buying. Bought one now and again but they don't appeal now. Too much stuff from the late 90s and 2000s for my taste.
I might get a sub for the ' Automobile ' Used to get it from the shop but I've never seen it on the shelves for many years. In the 70s I used to sometimes get ' Old Motor ' and ' Vintage Commercial '. All in black & white. Stopped production when the proprietor, Prince Marshall ,snuffed it . Still got a couple of copies.
I also have a full set of ' Restoring Classic Cars ' about a dozen all together. Got taken over by something like ' Classic & Sportscar '.
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I Don't buy any classic car magazines now - I find they are either infantile, nothing but voyeurism or full of rich boys' toys stuff. I have Motor Sports going back to 1950, the up-to-1990s copies of which I still read for recreation. My son and I have now stopped buying it, sadly. We both have wristwatches and we don't buy designer clothes.
>>And of course Carmarthenshire News from the local authority, which goes straight in the bin<<
Councils, not just in the UK, insist on wasting ratepayers' money by producing their own publications, because they live in fear of criticism and don't trust/can't cope with questioning journalism. The result is usually as stated here but they'll never be persuaded otherwise.
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Just bought my first copy of 'Weed World'. Final part of an article called The Garden of Weeden..
My friend has an annual $80 licence to grow her own, so I have been instructed in repotting, harvesting, drying and trimming. Lots of different varieties, which have different effects. It is a steep learning curve, and I am now familiar with mixing the product with organic butter by slowly melting in a skillet, reforming into a block, then using in home baking. Normal biscuits are kept in tins, whilst home baked cookies are kept in a pot jar. Easy to remember.
Probably not something the WI would do on an everyday basis.
Last edited by: legacylad on Wed 24 Jun 15 at 18:01
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Interesting post legacy.
I've always discouraged non- or inexperienced users from eating cannabis. It's easy for sensitive souls to get a frightening (although otherwise harmless) overdose experience, which will last too long for comfort. However effective the weed is, smoking it is a shorter-term experience, so 'safer' if you don't really know what you're doing.
A small percentage of people can be quite seriously affected by cannabis. It's best to approach any drug cautiously, starting small.
(Doubtless you do know what you're doing and know all this).
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 24 Jun 15 at 18:16
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Yes AC, my friends have smoked for 30+ years and are, as we would say in the UK , pillars of the community. I'm not partaking personally, I prefer a decent beer or bottle of wine, or in this part of the world a nice cocktail accompanied by a smooth sippin' tequila. Maybe followed later in the tub with home made margeritas.
I'm just interested in the process. Who knows, at some point I may have a little smoke or a small piece of chocolate cookie when out on the trail when there will be no alcohol for a few weeks.
Back to my trimming, repotting and pruning duties...
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>> a decent beer or bottle of wine, or in this part of the world a nice cocktail accompanied by a smooth sippin' tequila. Maybe followed later in the tub with home made margeritas.
Well, absolutely... but nothing wrong with a few doobies and a small chunk of majoun along the way what? Even a toot if you're so inclined.
Only if you can then continue to function of course. Addled folk with one eye bigger than the other mumbling 'Whaaa'?' are a bit embarrassing for everyone. People should recognize their limitations. You gotta be old and wicked for this stuff.
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>> It's easy for sensitive souls
>> to get a frightening (although otherwise harmless) overdose experience, which will last too long for
>> comfort.
Exactly what happened to me in the streets of Amsterdam, when celebrating the end of first year University exams. Awful experience. I was convinced I was going to die. I am evidently a sensitive soul, it put me off trying anything stronger for good.
Had an amusingly beneficial side effect though. I kept my trousers on when I went to bed in the shared hostel dorm, none of my mates did and they all got their pockets picked/trousers stolen in the night. So at least I had some money/a credit card. Although the card was a second card on my Mum's account, so largeish cash withdrawals at Amsterdam banks were a bit tricky to explain away................it was worse for my friend though, it was he who had driven us there in his Nan's beige Austin Montego, and the keys had gone walkies with his trousers. Had to telephone Nan back in Devon to DHL the spare set over to us. Took 3 days, customs stopped the package as she'd put some cash in for us which had to be investigated apparently.
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>> Just bought my first copy of 'Weed World'.
I imagined this was going to be a HIGNFY guest publication -
"Weed World, the magazine for alternative gardening enthusiasts."
"There is no such thing as a weed - just a plant in the wrong place".
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That's as may be Cliff but my Amateur Gardening and Gardeners World (both delivered) don't show me how to grow weed:)
Commercial Motor
Motor Transport
and Performance Bikes complete our line up.
Just made Ian confess to what he's bought while we've been here on holiday...
Classics Monthly
Landrover Owner International
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Truck & Driver
.......none of which I saw him buy!
Pat
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Magazines and periodicals - Crankcase
