Lary Bloom
Writer, Editor, Teacher
The Bloom Blog
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Monday, January 23, 2006
Martha Stewart Living?
For several years now, the "last issue" of my subscription to Martha Stewart Living has arrived faithfully by mail. The warnings have been voluminous. If I wanted to know what Martha had to say, and have the benefit, if that is the word, of the rest of the content, I simply had to pay up quickly. I never did, but the issues come anyway. That's no way, of course, to run a profitable magazine. Nor is it wise, as Omnimedia, owner of the magazine, saw fit to do when Martha went to prison, to minimize her in the logo for Martha Stewart Living. In the beginning, the name was printed in large type. Now, Martha has become much less important than Living.But, as the company feels obliged for some reason to send these issues, I feel an obligation to at least browse the content and to, of course, read Martha's helpful prose.
In the new issue, she got me right in the gut. She begins her column: "How often have you gone to a party and been confronted with large trays piled high with small squares of medium-hard yellow cheeses and undistinguished crackers and crudites?"
I was just thinking this the other day. My life would be perfect; but, as it is, it is dragged down into despair by regular confrontations with medium-hard yellow cheeses and celery sticks.
Many years ago, when I was a magazine editor, I sent a writer to Martha's house to interview her. When the reporter finished the interview, she called me. I asked how it went. "Horrible," she said. "Martha didn't offer me so much as a glass of water."
Perhaps Martha abhors that confrontation, too. Water, like medium-hard yellow cheeses, etc, is not a good thing.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 9:31 AM
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