1. Our “Reasons to Love New York” issue (December 24–31) is like a snowball—it gathers size and heft as readers add their own favorites to the list: construction workers; the guy who plays Pink Floyd’s “Money” on Wall Street; Frozfruits on every corner. But there are grinches out there who would like to see the whole thing melt away, like the Post-its and Chicken Scratch blog, which described Reason No. 17—a.k.a. “The Yankees Are the New Red Sox”—“notrocious” (a hybrid, an extensive online search reveals, of notorious and atrocious). It got worse from there: “Let me lay it on the line: The Yankees will never be the Red Sox … I’ve lived in both cities and let me tell you. I know my opinion is heavily biased but the fan base in NYC does not even closely represent the insanity of Red Sox Nation. Not even one iota. Not even one tiny atom of proximity. Not even one teeny speckle of dust on the backside of a flea similarity. New York Magazine … I will continue to love you for your immense appreciation of Gossip Girl, but you need to make this up to me.” Laura Siebenhoven was no fan of the Red Sox entry either, or much else about the issue: “Oh Christ, you guys are such posers. Real New Yorkers (i.e., those of us who were actually born and actually grew up here) do not adore illegal immigrants; do not relish seeing our old buildings destroyed and replaced by charmless, tiresome glass boxes; and above all do not enjoy the spectacle of the Red Sox as World Champions. We like winners here. So please, really. Get with the program or go back to Indiana.” Ahh, contentiousness—another reason to love New York! Fortunately, for our own sake, there were legions of others who were grateful for “Reasons to Love.” After commenting that our issue “got me stirred up with good feelings about our city,” the Diary of Third and Long blogger went on to compose his own list of all the things he loathes about New York, including “non-tipping tourists … the 24-Hour Deli with 48-hour bread … Chicks who dress the same. Annoying!!!! … MetroCards that don’t work … Con Edison construction work.” Happy New Year!
2. While “The Year in Culture” (December 17) scored with various cultural arbiters—“I like this [roundup] almost more than anything else out there,” wrote the First Showing blog of David Edelstein’s movie picks—it’s obviously tough to please every constituency. Andrew Russo of New York thought that the tastemakers we chose to poll for “The Culturati Caucus” were a much too rarefied lot. “Thirteen of the people polled saw Redacted. The movie has grossed $63,000. Can we get a caucus that does not represent the far, and out-of-touch, left wing?” Blogger Kate Gotola went so far as to promise violence for John Leonard’s placement of Mad Men in the category of “Best Ideas That Somehow Went South”: “I wish I had a wet, icy snowball, perfect aim, and a spot outside the offices of New York Magazine, so I could bean John Leonard in the ear.” Finally, the team of writers that produced the “Top-Ten Pop List” would like to make amends for an omission: Swedish indie-popsters Peter Bjorn and John, beloved for the excellent single “Young Folks,” were left off the list owing to the mistaken impression that their album Writer’s Block was released at the end of 2006. It was, in fact, released in 2007 in the U.S., and so it ought to have been on the list, at about No. 5.
3. Two New York Magazine covers made best-of year-end lists. Time magazine put “iGod” (June 25, 2007), featuring Steve Jobs, on its top ten, noting, “This cover could have been done 100 different ways, but this execution grabs the reader by the lapels and commands attention.” Ad Age chose our Katie Couric cover (July 16, 2007) as one of its Magazine Covers We Loved because “the right photo plus the right pull quote equals a cover portrait that is neither cruel nor promotional.” And we were pleased to see New York Times columnist David Brooks cite Vanessa Grigoriadis’s story about Gawker, “Everybody Sucks” (October 22, 2007), as one of the best magazine essays of the year, awarding it a “Sidney” and declaring 2007 “a very good year” for New York. No wet, icy snowballs for him!
END OF PRINT
R.I.P.
“I can’t believe you have decided to remove the ‘High Priority’ illustration from the beginning of the listings section! As an editorial designer and avid reader, this was a destination page for me and many others in the company I keep. Peace! Keep up the good work.” —Brad Hughes, Manhattan