Today, Other Magazines flips through Newsweek, The New Yorker, New York, and Vanity Fair to find out what’s worth your time—and what’s not.
Must Read
In Vanity Fair, Slate contributorChristopher Hitchens meditates on the death of an American solider he inspired to enlist. (Read the article that encouraged the young man to join up.)—G.H.
Must Skip
Newsweek’s cover story is a lackluster look inside the lives of powerful American women. The magazine lets Arianna Huffington, Kyra Sedgwick, and others write about their own experiences, but none of the testimonials proves inspiring or all that informative.—C.M.
Best Get
New York’sKurt Andersen protests the use of “speech codes” and “hate crimes” legislation to squelch unpopular speech on campus. Are the very ideas stated by Bill O’Reilly, Larry Summers, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really so dangerous?—B.F.
Best Politics Piece
If you’re sick of hearing about Hillary’s laugh, stick around for one more piece. The media’s endless lines about the former first lady’s giggling are even more amusing when they’re all collected in one place.—D.S.
Best Business Story
Newsweek’s article on James Dolan explains that his woeful handling of the New York Knicks isn’t representative of how he leads Cablevision, his father’s multibillion-dollar cable company. While the Knicks’ dreadful on- and off-the-court shenanigans paint Dolan as a villain, the piece offers a fuller picture.—C.M.
Best Science Piece
The New Yorker reports on breakthroughs in neurology that have provided a window into minds previously assumed to be in “vegetative” states and allowed researchers to pinpoint brain activity on individuals in comas. It offers glimmers of hope for the future of medical science.—D.S.
Best Politics Piece
A Vanity Fair feature uncovers the competitive dramas of Clinton’s second term characterized by a “triangle of a scandal-ridden lame-duck president, the wife he’s betrayed, and his designated successor.”—G.H.
Buzz Generator
An article in Vanity Fair reveals that boy-band manufacturer—and alleged swindler—Lou Pearlman wasn’t just in the pop music business for the money. The piece alleges that he was after the boys.—G.H.
Best Cocktail-Party Fodder
New York features 20 “living, working New Yorkers whose art changed art”—and includes a photo of Jeff Koons’$2 1988 statue Michael Jackson and Bubbles.—B.F.
