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Mrs. Murfreesboro: Canceled magazines symbolic of changing, difficult times



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By: JEANNE BRAGG, Post Columnist
Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2009 6:28 am
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I got a copy of Martha Stewart Living in the mail a week ago.

I’ve been keeping up with my magazines subscriptions better lately, and I don’t remember ordering Martha Stewart Living.

The day after the first one came, an identical copy arrived.

My sister came to town and solved the mystery. We had both been subscribers to Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion (one of my favorites ever) and Mary E’s last issue was December 2008. So the editors of Home Companion honored their commitment to subscribers with a subscription to Martha’s magazine. I no doubt received the note, but don’t remember having seen it.

I can’t decide how I feel about that.

When I finally sat down yesterday with that stack of winter magazines that’s been piling up since the first of January, there was a notice on the top of another favorite, Country Home, that said this would be the very last copy of their magazine, also. The March issue, it said, would be replaced with Better Homes and Gardens.

I can’t decide how I feel about that, either.

I haven’t exactly been a big Martha fan lately. Neither am I a Better Homes and Gardens fan.

At one time I was a fan of both, but Martha’s Living has so many things that are unapproachable and “out there,” and BH & G has little that appeals to me in these days.

One of the features in Martha’s March issue has an article about “tuteurs” (structures for climbing plants). There’s also a recipe for beets with watercress salad. I’m not a big beet fan, but have you tried to find watercress in Murfreesboro? I looked for it for a recipe (without success) and stumbled across some in a local Asian market once. But it isn’t a staple in any of the stores in which I regularly shop.

That's fitting for spring, because rhubarb is one of the first plants to flower in early spring, but I can’t count on my right hand any friend or family member I know that ever baked a rhubarb pie (especially with a yogurt custard).  Maybe their mothers did.

I saluted Martha when she agreed to go to prison and respect how she handled a difficult situation; but I‘ve stopped watching her on television.

Despite the fact that her guests are the tops in their fields, she is so condescending that she hardly lets them start a task without correcting the manner in which they are doing it. She’s an expert at many things, but humility isn’t in her top 10.

I’d pick up a Better Homes and Gardens magazine while waiting in a checkout line from time to time, but the flimsy paper became a turn-off and I had trouble finding articles featured on the front cover.

We have to face the fact that Gen Xers get much of their information from the Internet, and the printed word won’t be the same any more.

The Home Companion Web site said that, due to the housing crunch, advertisers aren't able to sell or buy homes, so fewer people are buying flooring, furniture, etc. and those companies can’t afford to advertise. It's a vicious circle! 

I can only imagine how many people at printing plants were directly affected by these immense losses. It is very disturbing to think about all the people who lose jobs when a business “folds,” editors, sales staff, truck drivers, lunchroom workers.

Sad day. Hard times. Tougher roads ahead.

Here’s hoping we continue to keep a big number of those losses away from our families and community.

‘Til next week.
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Member Opinions:
By: justdance on 3/3/09

Good article....

By: Oblio on 3/3/09

I agree with justdance - a very good article.

I am down to one subscription. Can't decide whether to renew The Week for another year. It is a wonderful magazine but expensive. If I do and it folds I'll be unhappy. If I don't and it folds I'll feel guilty. Wish this were the worst problem the new economic order has sent my way.

By: bibmom on 3/4/09
I wish you hadn't written that. I, too, am trying to get fewer magazines and haven't heard of The Week. But when I went to the website I was hooked.
Can you buy it at the newstand to see if I want to subscribe?


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