he said he'd get more "points" if i got 3 magazines instead of the one i would have preferred (which was priced much higher. i actually can't remember now what it was). to be honest, i didn't want any magazines at all. i would have rather just given some cash to the guy. but that's not how it works. so, i went ahead and ordered wondertime, family fun and cookie. i figured i could just donate them to the banneker center.
two months later, the first one arrives. it's wondertime. i feel a little strange flipping through it, in the comfort of my own home, since magazine reading, for me, is usually confined to the dentist's office. to my surprise, i find some okay articles, and some great ideas. like the women's magazines my mom used to get (women's day and family circle) they're packed with recipes and crafting ideas, and things to do with children. i fit nicely into the target audience--that scares me a little. so, family fun arrives a few days later. it is pretty much the same as wondertime, only slightly less hip (i just discovered they are put out by the same people). it was in one of these two magazines that i first heard about felting soap. in the most recent family fun, i saw a great idea for book marks that cosmo can easily do (with some supervision), and i've tried a recipe or two.
then cookie arrives. from the cover i can see that the target audience for this magazine has a much higher income than than i do, but once i started flipping through it, i was truly insulted. not only was the thing packed with ads for high end children's fashion and pharmaceuticals, but most of the "content" featured more stuff to buy. while wondertime and family fun encourage DIY projects to make your life better, cookie encourages spending money to make your life better. maybe that's appropriate for urban professional moms, who simply have more money than time (most working moms i know have very little of either). wondertime does have a regular feature called "stuff we love," but cookie recently had a fifty page section called "the cookie 100," which highlighted 100 items moms just couldn't live without. it seemed to me like the magazine was one big advertisement. in the current issue, there was a piece on putting together an all purpose holiday party outfit by getting a great blouse, a great skirt, and a great pair of shoes. they had several options pictured for each, including info on the designer, the price tag, and where you could find it. a cute skirt will cost you anywhere from $149 to $995. on the next page you can find a suggestion for a toddler's faux fur coat (to be paired with "thermals or tulle") for $328. remember that she'll get a good 4 months use out of it, if that. what economic recession?
i don't mind the other two (though i won't be renewing the subscription), but cookie? i find it so offensive, i didn't even want to take it to the banneker center. it's packed with the pretty colors and patterns often found in high fashion magazines, so i guess we can recycle them for collages and other craft projects.
in the future, i'll stick to harpers.
