An Apple a Day
Time crows over the iPhone. Again.
Posted Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, at 3:21 PM ET
Today, Other Magazines flips through Time, the New York Times Magazine, the Economist, Entertainment Weekly, the Believer, and the New Scientist to find out what's worth your time—and what's not.
Must Read
The Believer runs a riotous dialogue between blind humorists Ryan Knighton and Jim Knipfel, who swap stories about getting lost in bar bathrooms, hospitals, attics, and elevators while discussing the impact of blindness on their work. Money quote: "I can't tell you how many bar sinks I've pissed beneath."—J.M.
Must Skip
The cover story of Time is an article on the iPhone, lauding it as the "Invention of the Year." Unfortunately, it fails to convince why we should care about yet another media paean to this Apple gadget.—M.S.
Best Line
The New York Times Magazine confronts former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton with his remark that if the U.N. building in New York lost 10 stories, nothing would be changed. Bolton responds: "Well, you could take several stories off the buildings of most U.S. government agencies and we'd all probably be better for it too."—G.H.
Worst Line
The Economist's thought-provoking editorial on the apparent re-emergence of religion in public life opens with this downer: "Next week as Britons celebrate the capture of Guy Fawkes, a Catholic jihadist, under the Houses of Parliament in 1605, they might reflect how dismally modern the Gunpowder Plot and Europe's wars of religion now seem."—J.M.
Best Technology Piece
The New York Times Magazine surveys the emergence of God on the Internet, including the Christian God Tube ("Broadcast Him") and its Jewish and Muslim counterparts. It concludes with a fascinating discussion of the Internet video "The Truth About Islam," which is, like so much on the Internet, "part atavistic race riot, part religious disputation and part earnest effort at enlightenment."—G.H.
Best Quote
Fromthe Believer'sin-depth interview with graphic novelist Adrian Tomine, on the subject of readers relating with his work: "On one hand, it's nice, but at the same time, it's cold water in the face to realize you're not nearly as special and unusual as you might have thought when you were an alienated teenager."—J.M.
Best Editorial
The Economist examines Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise and the development of his particular brand of "post-political" governing. But the piece notes that Arnold's rise was the result of a unique set of circumstances, aided in no small part by the recall election, meaning that "post-politics" will likely end when he leaves office.—J.M.
Best Campaign Piece
Time christens the Ron Paul movement the "nerd revolution." A Ron Paul supporter says, "He's about something that American nerd culture can really get on board with: really knowing one subject and going all out on it. … For some people, it's Star Wars. … For Ron Paul, it's free-market commodity money."—M.S.
Best Travel Piece
The Economist visits North Korea and glimpses the bizarre ways in which the isolated country is attempting to generate tourism: "Where in the free world can one see 10,000 children dancing in synchronisation, dressed as eggs?"—J.M.
Elizabeth Gumport is a Slate intern.
Garin Hovannisian is a Slate intern.
Jake Melville is a Slate intern.
Morgan Smith, a former Slate intern, is a law student in Austin, Texas.


