Enchanted aisles
Prince William probably has all the help he needs for his upcoming wedding, but if you or someone you know is taking the plunge, these titles might help.
Swept away might well be the theme for the latest edition of Martha Stewart Weddings, which offers brides and grooms-to-be scores of ideas for their getaway weddings or honeymoons. In “50 ways to wed,” editors pull together a handful of wedding locations from almost every state in the country: (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Fla., is one suggestion.) Even the wedding dress spread is travel-inspired, with billowy flowing tunics for Egyptian appeal to a lacy tight-fitted dress inspired by prim Switzerland.
Whoever said the Brits are shy to talk about sex didn’t pick up the latest issue of Brides UK (a title available on New York newsstands.) The mag had couples try out sex classes from tantra to striptease. While few other bridal magazines touch the subject, Brides at least acknowledges that many couples have been together for sometime before they walk down the aisle. While other magazines might focus on wedding etiquette, Brides offers an amusing advice column answering questions on such dilemmas as what to do if your fiancé hates your wedding dress. (Answer: get another one.) Oh, and what do you do about a friend who’s a self-tanning addict and might ruin the photos. (Answer: pay for a more realistic spray-on tan.) Brides is telephone-book thick and heavy on British styling: one photo shows the bride and groom in big rubber boots?!
There are many New York wedding ideas presented in the Knot (special Long Island Edition). Most of the pages are quick reviews of people’s weddings. The couples, at least, cover the economic spectrum, and the weddings take place in halls from Brooklyn to Huntington. Prices for these venues would have been nice. Still, there are many ideas and best-of lists to make this a good tool for those tying the knot.
Want a Cosmopolitan Magazine for weddings? Check out Brides. There is a Q&A for men, “What Would You Do if Your Wife Didn’t Want to Have Sex on Your Wedding Night?” Then there are celebrity weddings, and a feature for a Bohemian wedding. Brides Magazine is for stylish women only.
The New Yorker informs us that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creative genius behind the Nintendo video-game empire, is a “bluegrass fanatic.” But the lengthy profile fails to reveal whether the creator of Super Mario Brothers favors picker Bill Monroe over Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Just the same, it does solve other enduring mysteries, such as the origin of the name “Donkey Kong” (in a Japanese-English dictionary Miyamoto found “donkey” translated as “stubborn” or “goofy”). On a less playful note, a feature about “The next AIDS” profiles Nathan Wolfe, the world’s most prominent virus hunter who declares it’s only a matter of time before another global epidemic kills millions of people. Another gloomy article argues that technology to improve energy efficiency will do nothing to slow energy consumption.
New York, unlike the New Yorker, isn’t so worldly and sophisticated that it feels the need to scour the globe each week to edify its readers. But in its list of “Reasons to Love New York Right Now,” did it have to be downright stupid? Reason No. 4, we are told, is none other than Eliot Spitzer, who gets a fawning interview asking what advice he’d give to President Obama. Also in the can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees department: a puff piece that credits Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein with “good leadership,” citing as evidence the fact that he “can’t stop smiling” in public appearances. Such solecisms were at least partly redeemed by the savory feature devoted to pork, though we’ll admit we found the close-up of the whole suckling pig slightly intimidating.
If you’re the type who just can’t get enough cover stories about Sarah Palin, and whether she’s going to run for president in 2012, then Time is your magazine. “How long will she keep everyone guessing?” the article begins, as if to signal 23 months of consistently inane coverage that lies ahead. If you’re looking for a magazine that asks stupid questions, such as “Did Obama fight or cave?” as he extended the Bush tax cuts, Time is also your magazine. We guess somebody somewhere is just trying to sell copy, but did they also have to put everybody into a deep, cranky sleep by nominating “Toy Story 3” as the best movie of the year?
Newsweek looks conspicuously slim, coming in at just 60 pages this week as it awaits some kind of transformation under editrix Tina Brown. Lacking quantity, however, the struggling mag delivers some quality. We liked the analysis of a “Shadow War” being conducted against Iran’s nuclear program, including the Nov. 29 assassination of an Iranian nuclear physicist, who was killed by a bomb attached to his car door by a man who fled on a motorcycle. Another thoughtful piece shows that while gay rights activists invoke the legacy of black civil-rights champions, some of the latter aren’t comfortable with the idea of gay marriage.