My father-in-law gave us a subscription to American Spectator magazine some 30 years ago. I ying and yang on my opinion of the magazine; it often seems way too harsh. But about 20 years ago they encouraged readers to send in photos of themselves reading American Spectator. My favorite was the Army officer reading the magazine while sitting in one of Saddam Hussein’s thrones following the first Gulf War.
Laughing that one of my fellow subscribers lived in such opulence, I thought it would be handy to include a home front picture. So I had my son take my picture reading American Spectator magazine while standing in front of two very long clotheslines. Even housewives read the magazine! (But I mailed them the photo and don’t have it now!)
The fun of finding an incongruous photo returned when World Magazine began to include photos of readers with the magazine in unusual spots. I’ve now hauled World Magazine to four different continents. It’s become a joke in the family: “Where’s Mom and her magazine?”
Fellow WorldMagBlog poster Mark Roth and I have commiserated over the years as our photos did not appear. Oh, lots of great ones turned up, but never mine.
I’m about to take another trip and a new edition of the magazine arrived in the mail today. I’ll stick it in my carry-on and read through the articles while I fly, but this time I’m NOT going to have my photo taken with it. I already have too many pictures of me and the magazine in far more interesting spots than St. Louis, MO.
I couldn’t find them all, but I’ve got a number for your enjoyment:
Here I am trying to show recent events to these guys on the corner of St. Marco’s Basilica in Venice.
I read the magazine while viewing the leaning tower of Pisa.
I also pulled out World to think in Paris.
I can’t find the picture of me sitting on the Great Wall of China NOT looking at the view, but perusing the magazine. We’re also missing the shot of Mao looking over my shoulder in Tiannamen Square into a May, 2008 edition.
My daughter got into the act at the Rodin Museum. Here she’s in the fits of despair out in the garden, fortunately with something to read . . .
We’re also missing the picture of me looking through the magazine on top of Notre Dame, nor do we have a photo of me at Loch Ness. We took a picture at the Louve where I point out recent events to a statue of Sargon. I wonder if my son has that one in his camera?
How about a Sherlock Holmes and Watson look at Baker Street’s tube station in London?
The best two don’t include me at all but show women in Nicaragua wearing glasses for the first time and getting a taste of the world outside of the Rio San Juan region. Laughing and smiling, but more important, seeing the World through new eyes.
LOVE THIS!!!!