Althouse: Isn't everyone's answer "Mad"?

September 23, 2020

Isn't everyone's answer "Mad"?

"What’s the first magazine you ever loved?"

ADDED: Oh, my! Kathy Griffin answered "The Iliad." That's a real when-they-go-low-I-go-high answer.

124 comments:

rehajm said...: Highlights or maybe Dynamite.

Then Mad...; 9/23/20, 7:31 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I subscribed to the Mad magazine and also bought many Mad books.; 9/23/20, 7:31 AM
Big Mike said...: That’s my answer.; 9/23/20, 7:32 AM
Stephen said...: Mine was Children’s Digest, then MAD when I turned 12.; 9/23/20, 7:32 AM
MikeR said...: Marvel Comics, for sure. Spiderman. First comic with a real human being as the hero.; 9/23/20, 7:34 AM
MadisonMan said...: Yes to Mad. The best Magazine for a young kid, especially for its explanations of advertising tricks.; 9/23/20, 7:34 AM
Phil 314 said...: National Geographic; 9/23/20, 7:35 AM
Robert Edick said...: Perhaps the Classics Illustrated version? Quick read.; 9/23/20, 7:42 AM
born01930 said...: Creepy, followed by Eerie. who doesn’t love Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie?; 9/23/20, 7:47 AM
rehajm said...: My first Mad. I bought it at a The Pantry in NC...; 9/23/20, 7:52 AM
Balfegor said...: Maybe the Economist, for me? I can't say I have strong feelings about any magazine in particular, but the Economist was the first magazine I enjoyed reading as a child. I guess we also had Time when I was young, but it never made much of an impression on me, other than one cover with cartoons of Bush and Dukakis flinging mud at each other, and later, a fold-out insert showing the military hardware in play during the Gulf War. So actually, I guess the pictures made an impression when I was a little boy.

After the Economist, probably National Geographic.; 9/23/20, 7:53 AM
Fernandinande said...: Popular Photography. Some of their covers had it spelled like
PHOTO-
GRAPHY
and I've enjoyed mispronunciating it like that ever since.; 9/23/20, 7:53 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Spy vs Spy; 9/23/20, 8:05 AM
tim maguire said...: That's a real when-they-go-low-I-go-high answer

Especially considering that "when they go low, we go high" was always bullshit.; 9/23/20, 8:10 AM
Jim said...: Highlights For Children. I loved Goofus and Gallant.; 9/23/20, 8:11 AM
tim maguire said...: Some people's answer is "Boys Life," though Mad is a close second.; 9/23/20, 8:11 AM
Kevin said...: Playboy.

Best interviews ever.

Brilliantly summarized in a easy to read data sheet.; 9/23/20, 8:15 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Absolutely loved "Mad Magazine". Laugh out loud funny for an 11-year old kid. Then, of course, by age 16, you've discovered "National Lampoon" and, well, exponential mirth ensues. And life is good. Woke snowflakes need not apply.; 9/23/20, 8:17 AM
mezzrow said...: I don't know about everybody, but it's mine. 50's MAD > 60'S MAD.

Better before the MAD went all curly.

I wish I could summon up a "what, me worry?" right now, but I can't.; 9/23/20, 8:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I subscribed to Mad in about 1960, shortly after discovering it on the rack in the Tigue's drugstore near where we lived in Wilmington, Delaware. If I'm correct about the year, I was 9. I remember being amazed and thoroughly delighted that such a thing existed in this world. I especially loved seeing TV ads made fun of, because I'd been watching ads, but now I saw how to get perspective.; 9/23/20, 8:26 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Readers Digest. All the funny bits first. Then letters. Then the rest. Lived that little book.; 9/23/20, 8:27 AM
tcrosse said...: Saturday Evening Post.; 9/23/20, 8:28 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Life Magazine. Look was a close second. Discovered the writing of Leo Rosten in Look. Didn't have any exposure to MAD until I was in my teens. Loved MAD too, but the pictorial mags were my favorites.; 9/23/20, 8:29 AM
Mary Beth said...: Mine was Highlights.

I guess an epic poem could be serialized, but I don't think that qualifies it as a magazine. That's not going high, that's naming the oldest piece of literature that she could think of. (More than many celebrities could do, I'll give her credit for that.) Answering with one of the more weirdly-titled porn magazines would have been funnier.; 9/23/20, 8:29 AM
Leland said...: Games (pre-merger); 9/23/20, 8:32 AM
wild chicken said...: My first memory of Mad was the 1960 political conventions issue. How else would I have ever heard of Harold Stassen?
I've loved politics ever since. It's comedy, people!

In fact my favorite network convention coverage was Comedy Channel's. Best voice-overs.; 9/23/20, 8:33 AM
stevew said...: I read Highlights in the dentist office, MAD was the first I had a subscription to. National Lampoon replaced it as my favorite. My parents didn't read either Mad nor National Lampoon, I doubt they would have let them in the house if they did.; 9/23/20, 8:35 AM
John Fisher said...: Never was fond of Mad - not that my parents would let it in the house. Believe it or not the magazine I read cover to cover every week growing up in the 60's was Time. I dropped it immediately when they declared in 1970 that the environment was too important for objective journalism.; 9/23/20, 8:35 AM
Fernandinande said...: I loved Goofus and Gallant.

"I tell you what, this Doofus guy is a dumbass."; 9/23/20, 8:36 AM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: Weekly Reader which was handed out in elementary school. Then probably Look magazine. I also read comics that my seven years older brother bought. Archie, primarily, but also Superman, Casper the Friendly Ghost etc. He also bought Mad and I read and enjoyed that as well but that came several years later maybe wen I was eight or so. Periodically, the teacher gave out a magazine/booklet with age appropriate books that we could order. These gave me the most pleasure of anything I can remember. I would get my Mother to tell me how many I could order, usually one or two, and then I would pore over all the listings and make my choices.; 9/23/20, 8:36 AM
Amexpat said...: Mad for me. It was the first magazine I subscribed to and I later collected older issues (post Kurtzman only) to get a sense of American TV shows and ads before I came of age to see them. I learned a lot from Mad.

I dropped Mad in the early 70's, in my mid teens, and moved on to National Lampoon and Playboy.; 9/23/20, 8:38 AM
R C Belaire said...: Analog - Science Fact/Science Fiction. Still have the issues where Dune was serialized.; 9/23/20, 8:38 AM
Oso Negro said...: Yeah, "Boy's Life" and "Highlights" might be common. But I bought my first "Playboy" at the age of eight in 1965 and I have a much clearer memory of that than I do of "Mad".; 9/23/20, 8:40 AM
Susan said...: Popular Mechanics.

My dad subscribed and I would read it cover to cover. Including the ads. I wanted to order the Build Your Own Submarine Plans but could never scrape up the money. My brother and I spent about 2 years drawing up our own plans although we never did even build a prototype. We sensed, somehow, that cardboard and plywood were not as seaworthy as required.

Then Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction, to which my mother gave me a subscription when I was young because he had a science essay in every issue. How she ever found it, I'll never know. She only read women's magazines and People and stuff like that.

#65,876 in the list of things I should have asked her when I had the chance.

My brothers got MAD, which I also read and enjoyed. But not like Popular Mechanics.; 9/23/20, 8:40 AM
Roughcoat said...: I'd have to say The Weekly Reader, although I must have started on Mad about the same time -- when it was 25 cents at the counter.; 9/23/20, 8:43 AM
JMW Turner said...: Some subscribed to the Iliad for the naked Trojans, I did it for the groovy interviews.; 9/23/20, 8:44 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Little Hustler; 9/23/20, 8:45 AM
Wilbur said...: I'd say Boys Life or Catholic Boy, which was sold through the school I attended. Not everyone subscribed, so I felt privileged when they passed out the new issues in class.

Loved MAD as a youngin' too. And my friend's Sporting News, to which he subscribed.; 9/23/20, 8:46 AM
Wilbur said...: I loved MADs takedown of TV commercials too.

Oops, I gotta go, Joe Namath is urging me to call the Medicare Advantage Hotline.; 9/23/20, 8:49 AM
gilbar said...: Anyone that says that they "loved" the Iliad has Clearly NEVER read it
I've read it Have You?; 9/23/20, 8:52 AM
Iman said...: Popular Mechanics.; 9/23/20, 8:55 AM
MountainMan said...: Yes, "Mad" was the best. Never had a subscription but we made weekly trips to the nearby drug store to browse the magazine rack and check out the latest copies of our favorite comics and look for the most recent issue of Mad. I had quite a collection at one time, don't know what happened to it. But I can still recall a lot of the content.; 9/23/20, 8:58 AM
Lash LaRue said...: Boys Life then Mad.; 9/23/20, 9:01 AM
Gahrie said...: Mine was either Reader's Digest or National Geographic.; 9/23/20, 9:02 AM
iowan2 said...: Successful Farming, Wallaces Farmer, Boys Life, Highlights, Mad Magazine(dozens of books)

All but Mad, were subscriptions. We got 3 daily newspapers, half dozen weekly magazines, and about as many newsletters, dozens of magazines. Subscriptions were a line item on tax returns. I didn't discover Mad, until I was old enough to be allowed to wander alone on shopping trips into the Quad cities, 3-4 times a year.; 9/23/20, 9:03 AM
JMW Turner said...: A Pilgrim's Progress: Boy's Life, Mad Magazine, Anything British Invasion, Playboy Magazine, Oui Magazine, Penthouse Magazine, Anything Firesign Theater, National Lampoon Magazine, Seventies Rolling Stone Magazine, National Review Magazine, Anything Early P.J. O'Rourke, Anything Althouse Blog, James Lilek Blog, Back To Early Sixties Mad Magazine Parodies.; 9/23/20, 9:06 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: I admit to a shameful love of Tiger Beat circa 1971. Bobby Sherman was so cute. "Could YOU be Bobby's DREAM GIRL?" (Only if Bobby had Epstein's sexual proclivities. It never once occurred to us teenyboppers that if any of our idols really took an interest in their fan base that went beyond politeness, it would land them in the pokey.)

When I read NYT and WaPo articles about the Obamas or RBG, I recognize that Tiger Beat's style of journalism lives on.; 9/23/20, 9:15 AM
tim maguire said...: My favorite anecdote about Mad Magazine: Once upon a time (when magazines were more profitable), Mad had 1 subscriber in Jamaica. One day, the subscriber cancelled, so the editors flew the entire staff to Jamaica to knock on his door and ask him to resubscribe.; 9/23/20, 9:16 AM
traditionalguy said...: Mad’s satire was fun like Babylon Bee is today.But as for loving a magazine that has to be American Heritage. They fearlessly told what the propaganda of the past left off.; 9/23/20, 9:22 AM
MayBee said...: Ranger Rick; 9/23/20, 9:24 AM
wendybar said...: TV and Movie Screen or any other tabloid of the time. My Grandmother used to read the Tabloids of the times...and I remember reading and rereading all about Liz Taylor and her many men.....; 9/23/20, 9:27 AM
William said...: Do comic books count? I was into comic books long before Mad. Mad used to make fun of comic book heroes. Their Archie take down was particularly memorable. Mad made fun of things I was interested in.; 9/23/20, 9:28 AM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Humpty Dumpty. I wasn't keen on most of it, but they had a serial comic strip "Twink: The Star That Came Down From Heaven" that I really liked as a six year old. Never seen any mention *anywhere* about that strip.; 9/23/20, 9:28 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Perhaps the Classics Illustrated version? Quick read."

This. These seemed like something special and apart when I encountered them as a little boy. Maybe because they were a Christmas stocking staple. That'd put a shine on anything.; 9/23/20, 9:38 AM
dgstock said...: Definitely Mad. Their rendition of “The Children’s Hour” illustrated by Don Martin was only one of their many hilarities.; 9/23/20, 9:39 AM
GingerBeer said...: Highlights. As a kid, I'd read it anytime I visited the doctor's office. I asked my parents for a subscription. They told me it was only available for doctors.; 9/23/20, 9:46 AM
DanTheMan said...: Highlights is the first magazine I can recall. I used to look forward to mom taking me to the doctor's office, and I would do the "Hidden objects" picture while we waited.

I actually had a letter published in Mad when I was in Junior High. I was a celebrity for a few days. :); 9/23/20, 9:46 AM
Francisco D said...: A friend of the family had a vast library. I was particularly happy with his collection of Mad magazines.

Before there was binge series watching on Netflix, I was binge Mad reading at Mr. Kessler's house.; 9/23/20, 9:57 AM
Michael K said...: I had a subscription to "Argosy Magazine" when I was 10. The novel that became the movie "Shane" was serialized as "Rider from Nowhere" in the magazine. When I saw the movie I recognized the story immediately.; 9/23/20, 9:59 AM
J Severs said...: I fell in love with The Iliad in chapter1, where you can easily visualize Agamemnon and Achilles screaming at each other.; 9/23/20, 10:09 AM
Goetz von Berlichingen said...: I would have said 'Mad' and then National Lampoon, but others' comments here made me realize it was 'Time'. In 5th grade I discovered a local library that had copies going back to the 30s. I read every one of them over the course of a few months. I wouldn't mind doing that again.; 9/23/20, 10:10 AM
buwaya said...: The US Naval Institute "Proceedings".
I started geeking out on it as the Manila Army&Navy Club library took it. Maybe from age 6 or so.
Every Sunday after church we would go to the club.
My route was direct to the library, and the first stop was the magazine rack.

We did not get "Mad" normally, as there was no local or Asian edition. One would have to look for it with the dealers in used magazines (there were such businesses), mainly sourced from discards from US bases.

My other favorite was the "Far East Economic Review" written by expat Britons in Hong Kong. My dad had that, and I would filch it out of his briefcase. "Time" also, and sometimes "Fortune", but the FEER was funnier.

Yes I was a weird kid.; 9/23/20, 10:12 AM
buwaya said...: I read the "Iliad" to all our kids.; 9/23/20, 10:13 AM
Retail Lawyer said...: "Marble Row Country" ads for cigarettes.

"He tousled his hair so carefully, that now he is the leader of the whole country."; 9/23/20, 10:14 AM
Sam L. said...: The Illiad was a magazine? DANG! My copy was a BOOK! I paid too much.; 9/23/20, 10:21 AM
LA_Bob said...: Althouse,

My experience was similar at about the same age. I think the first one I bought was the one with Flipper on the cover. I saw it at the magazine rack at Sav-On Drug (now CVS) when I was nine or ten.

Great insights in MAD. My favorites were usually Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side of..."

So much genius in that magazine.

And, I agree with Gilbar. I read the Iliad in high school. Never inclined to tackle it again.; 9/23/20, 10:23 AM
PM said...: Mad.
With props to the folding-back-cover trick.; 9/23/20, 10:24 AM
todd galle said...: Highlights, Mad, and Cracked when young, then National Lampoon and Spy, then in college Punch (I still miss it) and Proceedings (like Buwaya). Now it's gun stuff and JSTOR. The Museum where I worked had National Geographic's going back to forever, and I went through a fair amount during lunch hours, since they were literally 15 steps away from my office. My other haunt was the newspaper room at the State Library, where they had a large array of dailies from across the world, and microfilm of state newspapers back to before the Civil War (the old one, not the next).; 9/23/20, 10:31 AM
Joe Smith said...: Any man here who grew up in the '60s and '70s and doesn't answer 'Playboy' is a stone cold liar : ); 9/23/20, 10:36 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: My parents wanted it to be MAD, but it was Zillions.; 9/23/20, 10:42 AM
Howard said...: Highlights. It was in every office waiting room in the 60's. I always related to Goofus and thought Gallant was a douche bag... unexpectedly.; 9/23/20, 10:43 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: The decline of National Geographic into a mostly political magazine is dispiriting.; 9/23/20, 10:45 AM
ngtrains said...: Saturday Evening Post
then National Geographic
then Model Railroader - still have my first issue from 1950; 9/23/20, 10:47 AM
Ralph L said...: Motor Trend was my first subscription.

if any of our idols really took an interest in their fan base that went beyond politeness, it would land them in the pokey.

Most of them wouldn't have been interested even if you were legal.

The US Naval Institute "Proceedings".

I didn't read much of the articles, mostly just the captions. My dad gets it for free now, I tossed a few decades in the recycling bin without his knowledge.; 9/23/20, 10:55 AM
Deevs said...: Transworld Skateboarding. I think my only exposure to Mad Magazine was seeing it on newsstands in grocery stores. Never interested me. I looked through a Cracked once, and wasn't too impressed.

Probably the happy medium between a skateboard magazine and a humor magazine was Big Brother, which is where a lot of the Jackass guys got their start. They had a guy on staff named Dave Carnie, and I still think he's one of the funniest writers I've ever come across. He and an intern interviewed Danzig for the magazine once while wearing Dracula capes. Danzig reportedly asked his friends who were with him, "Do we kick their asses now or later?" Of course, I haven't read any of his stuff in nearly 20 years, so my tastes may have changed.; 9/23/20, 10:57 AM
Lewis said...: Sharon , I left my man at a North Dekota junction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojIZ61GBHwY; 9/23/20, 11:07 AM
Browndog said...: Mad was the only magazine I read until later mid-teens then it was Reader's Digest. MAD was very anti-war, and I still have vivid memories of singing "I'm burning my draft card today" with my cousin. We were like 8 yrs old.; 9/23/20, 11:07 AM
loudogblog said...: I've always loved Mad magazine. I think that it was a great influence on me when I was growing up. I actually sent Dick DeBartolo a fan email a few weeks ago and he sent back a very nice response.; 9/23/20, 11:15 AM
Nichevo said...: Scientific American or Aerospace America.; 9/23/20, 11:24 AM
wild chicken said...: I'd ask if comic books count. But that wouldn't sound "smart" would it.

But between comics and Mad and some "juvenile" books, I supposedly read college level in 9th grade.; 9/23/20, 11:33 AM
Yancey Ward said...: If you were born in the 1960s, the answer is going to be TV Guide, if you are honest.; 9/23/20, 11:33 AM
wild chicken said...: My own first subscription was Newsweek at about 15.

Actually pretty good back then.; 9/23/20, 11:35 AM
tim in vermont said...: I vote for Mad. Before that it was Archie comics.

"I looked through a Cracked once, and wasn't too impressed.”

Cracked sucked, Mad was great.; 9/23/20, 11:35 AM
Yancey Ward said...: If I don't choose TV Guide, then for me it would be Reader's Digest, the only other magazine my got that I was interested in (my mother controlled the subscriptions and had "Good Housekeeping" etc.) When I hit puberty, it was Playboy, the odd copy I could find where my father stashed them (he likely got them from his cousin and best friend). Even found a Oui once, and thought I had hit the jackpot.

When I was around 15, the family got subscriptions to Time and Newsweek, and I eagerly read both when they arrived in the mail each week. I also got myself subscriptions to SF anthology mags like Isaac Azimov and Analog around the same time. I don't think I read a Mad Magazine edition until I was in my late teens, and probably well past the prime of the publication.; 9/23/20, 11:40 AM
tim in vermont said...: "Any man here who grew up in the '60s and '70s and doesn't answer 'Playboy' is a stone cold liar “

Since I didn’t live in a household where Playboy was on the living room coffee table, my chances of seeing a Playboy before I was of age to buy one myself was pretty slim, I could buy Mad with my paper route money. Once I could buy them, I liked Oui much better though, and of course Penthouse for the Forum.

“I never thought that something like this would happen to me....”

Although a few years back, I was at a restaurant, and at a large table was a fifty year reunion of Playboy bunnies, and I actually recognized one of them, she still looked pretty good to me. I never thought that something like that would happen to me.; 9/23/20, 11:43 AM
tim in vermont said...: After Mad, it was National Lampoon.; 9/23/20, 11:45 AM
Michael K said...: I still remember quite a few stories from Argosy. It had good fiction, now lost to magazine. I also taught myself to read with western novels. My first book, when I was 8, was "Book of Cowboys."; 9/23/20, 11:50 AM
Jay Vogt said...: Lot's of familiar stuff here for me. Highlight's at doctor's and dentist's offices for sure.
Loved Mad Magazine for sure: Spy vs. Spy and that fold it back cover page.
Would have thought that was more of a "boy" thing than a "girl" thing.
. . . . . Huhhh!; 9/23/20, 12:03 PM
Jay Vogt said...: First one that I took a subscription to was "Road & Track" when I suppose I was 16; 9/23/20, 12:12 PM
cassandra lite said...: "And it was a first edition." -Kathy Griffin; 9/23/20, 12:16 PM
Darrell said...: Popular Science. Before it became Popular "Science." Popular Mechanics, too.; 9/23/20, 12:22 PM
Joe Bar said...: Dirt Bike.
The The National Lampoon.; 9/23/20, 12:23 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: National Geographic. My grandparents had a bookshelf full of them going back to the twenties. They noticed my fascination because that bookshelf was the first place I went when we visited. When I was six they bought me my own subscription and renewed it every year for years. I hadn't seen a new issue of NG for years, but I encountered one at the dentist a while back. Just another PC rag now, white guilt and global warming. Sad.; 9/23/20, 12:30 PM
WhoKnew said...: Mad, I loved all the regulars. And Playboy. My Dad subscribed and the day it came my brother and I would slip it out of the cover to read the interview and then repackage it before dad got home. In the late 60s and 70s I loved Car and Driver. Every month they had a column by Jean Shepard that was only nominally about cars. That was always the highlight of any issue. Plus they had snarky replies to the letters to the editors and attitude about everything else.; 9/23/20, 12:30 PM
Mr. Forward said...: “Coevolution Quarterly” 75% of which went right over my head.; 9/23/20, 12:32 PM
Iman said...: Playboy magazine?

I not only read it, I ruined it!; 9/23/20, 12:32 PM
Joe Smith said...: "Since I didn’t live in a household where Playboy was on the living room coffee table, my chances of seeing a Playboy before I was of age to buy one myself was pretty slim..."

Then you didn't look hard enough : )

Heck, in those days they were in every barber shop and the centerfolds on every auto-shops' walls...; 9/23/20, 12:33 PM
rhhardin said...: Boys' Life.; 9/23/20, 12:38 PM
Jim Gust said...: Mad might not be the first magazine I loved, especially if we include comic books, but it was certainly the magazine I loved the most.

The first time I bought one, I took it to my bedroom to read. My mother was so concerned she sent my father in to see what it was that had my attention. He flipped through it, approved it pretty quickly. My subscription began shortly after.; 9/23/20, 12:49 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Of course Readers Digest was my parents ‘scription. My first was Hot Rod or another Peterson pub for drag racing. TV Guide was also well read around the house.; 9/23/20, 1:08 PM
gadfly said...: We subscribed to OMNI back when the our boys were in middle school because they loved to read science and science fiction stories but Mom and Dad read the monthly magazine from cover to cover as well. Wiki says the publication began in October 1978 and ended in 1995.

For those who are interested, here is a complete short story from the March 1979 edition called "The Great Moveway Jam." Enjoy!; 9/23/20, 1:10 PM
alanc709 said...: First magazine that attracted me was Life. Especially the coverage of Kennedy's assassination. I was 7 when that happened.; 9/23/20, 1:30 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: At home, we got all the regulars... Nat Geo, Life and Saturday Evening Post. Loved the pictures in those. Then about 1960 I'd go to the drugstore, buy a couple Mary Janes or Squirrels and mosey to the magazine rack for Mad Magazine. Don Martin's characters drove me wild. Spy vs. Spy, the folding back covers, (not unless you had the money to buy), were so fresh and captivating. Anyone remember the cardboard "records" stapled in the center? My favorite was "She lets me watch her mom and pop fight". Shitfire! ... it's on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asaN8GWPsRA; 9/23/20, 2:08 PM
CStanley said...: Loved the back cover foldi ns of Mad magazine the best. I was probably too young to get most of the humor, just remember grabbing my older brother’s copies to check out the fold in.

Highlights, Children’s Digest, Readers Digest, and Cricket.

And National Geographic. The bookshelf with the crisply aligned yellow covers fascinated me.; 9/23/20, 2:12 PM
Michael K said...: Speaking of Playboy, when I was in high school I worked summers at a warehouse across the street from the first Playboy offices. I would see the models getting on the bus to go home about the same time I got off work. I always thought they were pudgy. Maybe nudes photography better if they are not skinny. Later, when I had left for college, Hefner bought the old Palmolive Building which had the "Lindberg Beacon" on top of it. At the time it was taller than other buildings around. We could see the beacon in Michigan in summer.; 9/23/20, 2:15 PM
Tom_Ohio said...: mine was actually Reader's Digest, yes even before Mad.; 9/23/20, 2:18 PM
Michael K said...: I used to read the Reader's Digest condensed books. The magazine, too, now that I think of it.; 9/23/20, 2:35 PM
Jim at said...: Boys' Life.

Mad was something I read at the 7-11 while waiting for school to start. Pretty good stuff in the mid- to late-70s.; 9/23/20, 3:18 PM
Leslie Graves said...: Sadly, my answer is "Seventeen", which I fell in love with when I was eleven.; 9/23/20, 3:26 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: I figured Kathy Griffin would choose the Odyssey, what with the chopping off of Medusa's head and all.; 9/23/20, 3:42 PM
Joe Smith said...: @Michael K

"I always thought they were pudgy."

Maybe they were the rejects.

Anyway, back in the day, women who appeared in magazines (clothed or otherwise) looked like actual women, not androgynous heroin addicts.; 9/23/20, 4:12 PM
Bilwick said...: HUMPTY DUMPTY, a magazine for kids. When you got older and a little more sophisticated, you were supposed to move on to CHILDREN'S DIGEST, but I never liked that as much, and by then I'd discovered MAD. And of course DRUM, which my weird uncle Karl introduced me to.; 9/23/20, 4:36 PM
bagoh20 said...: All you fancy people with your magazines. We didn't have no damned magazine money.; 9/23/20, 4:43 PM
Joe Smith said...: "All you fancy people with your magazines. We didn't have no damned magazine money."

We didn't either...read them at the dentist/doctor/barbershop, or centerfolds spotted on the neighbor's garage walls : ); 9/23/20, 4:49 PM
Rory said...: Just ordered a 55-year old issue of Mad, containing song parodies I've carried in my head all this time.; 9/23/20, 5:29 PM
todd galle said...: Last Playboy I bought was at the instigation of my wife, the edition with Katerina Witt the skater. We were regular watchers of the skating circuit on TV... my wife would often yell 'ass cheeks!' when a skaters suit ran up. Nice of her really when my nose was in a book. Witt was far more classy on the ice, but she did have a rack and a half. Just saying. truth is truth. As it was from the late 1990s, no razors involved except along the legs and underarms.; 9/23/20, 7:07 PM
iowan2 said...: I forgot Reader Digest. I did digest it every month. Did the 3,or 4 humor sections first, than there was a quip on the bottom about every 10 to 15 pages, then tried to pick through the stories, eventually all of them. Playboy is a yes. Not on the coffee table(we didn't have one, 3 boys in 7 years, means no coffee table). I subscribed into the 90's, by then the quality had gone way down, the interviews seemed phony, and articles squishy.; 9/23/20, 7:39 PM
ken in tx said...: Humpty Dumpty, then Boys Life, Readers Digest, Mad was a sometimes purchase. I saw the first-time published photos of Bigfoot in my Grandmother's copy of Argosy.; 9/23/20, 8:36 PM
Gospace said...: Analog- Science fiction/Science fact

The owner of the local corner stationary store/soda fountain (remember those?) used to put a copy behind the counter for me. They've one downhill. I stopped my subscription years ago when I realized I wasn't finishing any of the stories anymore. I'm not the only person who did that.; 9/23/20, 8:53 PM
Joe Smith said...: "I subscribed into the 90's, by then the quality had gone way down, the interviews seemed phony, and articles squishy."

I know what you mean...those articles (wink, wink)...; 9/23/20, 9:03 PM
Joe Smith said...: "Witt was far more classy on the ice, but she did have a rack and a half."

The internet machine photo search confirms your opinion...

You are correct, sir! (say it in Ed McMahon's voice and it sounds better); 9/23/20, 9:06 PM
Ralph L said...: As it was from the late 1990s, no razors involved

IIRC, she admitted to augmentation--it was impossible to deny it.; 9/23/20, 9:19 PM
Ralph L said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/23/20, 9:20 PM
Shawn Levasseur said...: TV Guide.

As a kid in the 70's I would practically memorize the network schedules.

It got to the point where my parents would almost as often ask me what was on TV, rather than ask for the guide back.

I also read the articles cover-to-cover, often did the crosswords, and always anticipated the release of the Fall season preview issue as a special occasion.; 9/24/20, 9:42 AM