Althouse: "Why on those increasingly rare occasions when I look at Slate these days do I feel like I might be reading Parade Magazine?"

July 22, 2011

"Why on those increasingly rare occasions when I look at Slate these days do I feel like I might be reading Parade Magazine?"

Heh. Really.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...: What percentage of the population sends their kids to camp, or did so in the 60's? Growing up (70's), I only knew two kids who went to camp.

Of people my age (mid-40's) almost all of the people I know who went to camp are Jewish.; 7/22/11, 10:24 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Puh-Leaze.

I can't read ANYTHING without thinking it should be part of a fucking parade,...; 7/22/11, 10:25 AM
Scott M said...: Nail, meet head.; 7/22/11, 10:25 AM
George said...: Slate has really gone downhill since the Kinsley days...and the very worst part of the magazine is their law coverage by Lithwick and Bazelon. They are complete and total hacks.; 7/22/11, 10:31 AM
edutcher said...: Slate was always a Lefty rag, now it's a Lefty rag desperate for eyeballs, hence stories like this.; 7/22/11, 10:39 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: I'm sorry, but this is journalism today.

I can't pick on Slate - they're no different than every other publication I've abandoned.; 7/22/11, 10:43 AM
Calypso Facto said...: the very worst part of the magazine is their law coverage by Lithwick and Bazelon

Agreed. To me, Lithwick's vacuity was also one of the nails in Newsweek's coffin.; 7/22/11, 10:46 AM
Michael K said...: Camp is an experience that is totally foreign to me. I never did it and my kids never have. I don't even know anyone who ever went to camp or sent their kids. I do know of a couple of camps at Catalina Island and they look like they would be fun. When we were spending vacations on our boat at Catalina, my kids used to sneak into the Boy Scouts camp and pretend to be scouts until the counselors caught them. Then they would take off on paths that only kids who spent a lot of time there could follow. All vacations were family vacations.; 7/22/11, 10:48 AM
traditionalguy said...: There are many unemployed guys in London that really know how to publish what readers want to see.

They could make The Enquirer look like a church newsletter. Surely they can push Slate to #1.

Young women in nearly nude shots is a good way to get readership.

What they must fight is boredom. But liberalism requires a fantasy based storyline that is always so boring.; 7/22/11, 10:49 AM
Bayoneteer said...: An interesting history Slate has. They were founded by Microsoft and founding editor Michael Kinsley put out pretty good zine at first. After Kinsley left the zine deteriorated greatly becoming just another a lame stream opinion outfit. After the WaPo bought it (heaven knows why) it's just turned to shit. I dropped it from my favorites about a decade ago and only see it now if it comes from a link. All lefty hacks with not a drop of insight.; 7/22/11, 10:54 AM
D.D. Driver said...: I used to be a daily reader (despite its generally lefty bent) but for the last 5 years or so I read Slate once every 3-4 months. It's gone from being merely lefty (but still interesting) to being meat-head, lefty claptrap.

Its definitely the Lithwickification.; 7/22/11, 10:55 AM
Mike said...: I dunno about going to camp. But I was a YMCA summer camp counselor for two summers in the early 60's in the San Diego County mountains. Over the summer we'd have 6 to 8 camp sessions that lasted from a week to 10 days.

It was interesting to see and learn what you had to do to make some of the "outliers" among the young boys behave in a civilized fashion. I suspect I learned as much as any of the campers did.

As for Slate magazine/website? Does anyone really read it anymore?; 7/22/11, 11:00 AM
Lance said...: Weisberg is driving that rag into the ground. Bring back Kinsley.; 7/22/11, 11:08 AM
Lance said...: Or even better sell it to Tina Brown. That way she can destroy three magazines at once.; 7/22/11, 11:10 AM
dick said...: Seems very strange to me that almost none of the readers attended summer camp. I was a boy scout and attended scout camp every summer while growing up. I also attended the church summer camp. Almost all of the people I grew up with also attended these same camps and they were a lot of fun. And as for Jewish kids going to camp, there were almost no Jews in my home area and those who were never went to camp. I guess that the whole life experience of kids changed around the time JFK was elected because my experiences were so very different from what the commenters here are talking about.

We did not attend summer camps like those in Dirty Dancing but we definitely did attend those from the kid's groups we grew up with. I am not an outdoorsman but there were a lot of neat things to do then.; 7/22/11, 11:50 AM
George said...: I went to Scout camp for years; I don't think it is the same as the Slatester's camp experience.; 7/22/11, 12:19 PM
SJL said...: I never went to summer camp because my summers were spent at our lake-front cottage...who needs camp? One year my son went to a Methodist-run summer camp for a week, and he was really turned off with how they tried to indoctrinate him. I raised my boys to think for themselves, and they have exceeded my expectations!
Slate=People=Daily News=fluff. Fun to read, but that's it.; 7/22/11, 12:19 PM
Titus said...: I love a parade....

except gay pride parades, never been.

I love small town parades with fire trucks and candy being thrown and tractors and fucked up clowns with balloons and guys walking on stilts and a shitty marching band.

I love A parade.; 7/22/11, 12:27 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Lance,

Or even better sell it to Tina Brown. That way she can destroy three magazines at once.

To the applause of everyone, because she's a woman, and,...well, I don't know why else.

Whatever. I second the motion.; 7/22/11, 1:05 PM
kimsch said...: My son and I spent a week at Cub Scout Day Camp earlier this summer, he had a lot of fun. He goes to the park district day camp three days a week over summer as well so that he has something to do and so we can keep up some of the discipline of getting up and ready to go somewhere over the summer so going back to school isn't such a shock to the system.

I grew up in an affluent community and classmates of mine went off to "sleepover" camp as we called it then.

wv: ovenolog; 7/22/11, 1:44 PM
MadisonMan said...: My sister went to Manitowish, and so did my daughter and my Uncle. I went to Philmont. I usually spent a week at Boy Scout camp, from age 10-15 or so.; 7/22/11, 1:49 PM
Palladian said...: I was entirely camp until I could grow a full beard, which finally butched-up my act a little bit.; 7/22/11, 2:24 PM
Charles said...: Where do I turn myself in, I really, really loved "camp"...but I've never been in the back of a police cruiser In fact, I really, really, really loved it...but I'm no CEO. So that turns that bit of psychological profiling on it's head.

The writer was and is a weenie. He more than likely deserved whatever "short sheeting", "wedgie", "tipped canoe", 'hand dipped in warm water whilst sleeping" trauma that came his way.; 7/22/11, 2:30 PM
Fred4Pres said...: But I enjoy blogs that make me think of Spy Magazine. It is rare, but occasionally it happens.; 7/22/11, 2:51 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I went to boy scout camp for a couple of weeks each year to earn merit badges. We caught rattle snakes sometimes too. I hear that is risky, but we did it.

We were "survival" camping in a glen and were throwing rocks at each other across it (not really trying to hit each other, just fucking around). Once rock caught me in the face, right under my left eye.

If you have ever seen a golf ball heading straight towards you, it was like that. You do not perceive the forward movement. The rock just giggled a bit due to its spin until it hit. I understand how deer get hit by cars when the headlight mesmerize them.

It split my cheek open. If you have ever seen a face wound, lots of blood. I was drenched in it. I staggered back to the maincamp and walked through the archery range by mistake. The counselors thought I caught an arrow in the face. I thought they were going to pass out they were so ashen.

I then had to do a trip to the ER for a bunch of stiches. The resident used me to show proper stiching to the interns and he did a pretty good job. I did not have to go home, just not allowed to swim do to the bandage. Barely a scar afterward (I did not need plastic surgery later on).

Good times. Good times.; 7/22/11, 3:01 PM
jeff said...: "Of people my age (mid-40's) almost all of the people I know who went to camp are Jewish."

Me. 49. Camp every year when I was a kid. Baseball camp for a long weekend, scout camp for a week, scary religious lord of the flies camp for a week. Oddly enough, all of them at the same camp location. Found out it is still open and thriving in central Kansas in the flint hills. As a kid, I always thought it was farther away. Actually about a 60-90 minutes drive.; 7/22/11, 3:39 PM
jeff said...: "Once rock caught me in the face, right under my left eye."

Been there. When I was about 6, I was in a rock fight in the neighbors driveway. All in good fun until I caught a rock in the forehead. Bled like a stuck pig. Went running home (about 30 feet away) couldnt see anything cause all the blood in my eyes. I was sure I was dying. Ran into the family room where my mother had several friends visiting. Mostly mothers of my friends. None of them batted a eye or even interrupted their conversation. Mom moved me into the bathroom, cleaned me off, slapped a band-aid on me and that was that. After 45 years, I still have that little scar. It still kinda amazes me that no one (besides me) was even a little bit freaked out about it.; 7/22/11, 3:46 PM
LordSomber said...: I only check out Slate for Hitchens' columns. Not much else there.; 7/22/11, 4:06 PM
George said...: "If you have ever seen a golf ball heading straight towards you, it was like that."

I was in first or second grade at the baseball field. Kid threw a bat in the air. I can still see, clear as day, the bat above me, spinning, spinning, spinning until, as the "Louisville Slugger" brand rotated one last time, it smacked me right in the forehead.

Next thing I remember I was in the nurse's office.; 7/22/11, 5:17 PM
Lucius said...: I'm just amused to see Timothy Noah's byline on this fluff. Didn't Tim famously make some pronouncement on bloggingheads (or somewhere) about being one of the "responsible, serious" people in America?; 7/22/11, 6:17 PM
ken in tx said...: I went to scout camp, church camp, and band camp almost every year. I think I looked forward to it almost as much as my parents did.; 7/22/11, 9:57 PM
Seeing Red said...: My kid's in summer camp she loves it there. & spent 1 week w/her friends at a church camp - we don't really go to church.; 7/23/11, 9:53 AM