Slate's Bizbox
other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Rockets Red GlareBrits go nuts over fireworks.

By Josh Levin
Updated Friday, Nov. 7, 2003, at 5:40 PM ET
New Republic

New Republic, Nov. 17
In the cover story, Noam Scheiber writes that the Dean campaign has altered a previously incontrovertible political calculus: It has not only lowered the cost per vote, it's in the black. Campaign manager Joe Trippi, the man behind the Internet-mobilized, money-generating Meetup army, is less a computer nerd than a crafty organizer skilled in PowerPoint. As small Internet contributions snowballed into a mountain of cash, Trippi turned his sights on deep-pocketed Democrats. … Hassan Fattah profiles Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric who's pulling in followers and money with his flair for anti-American rhetoric. With Sadr's militia reaching the tens of thousands and his tour company, which guides Shiite pilgrims through the city of Najaf for up to $350 a pop, raking in the dough, Fattah thinks the U.S. government should give him what he wants: a position and a paycheck.

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated, Nov. 10
A warning to all 2,548 SI cover subjects: You've just been rejinxed. Along with a voodoo doll, the mag's covers retrospective, which reproduces every front page of its 50-year production run, should come with a complimentary magnifying glass. Some fun stats while you're squinting through 27 pages of postage-stamp-sized covers in a nostalgic search for Evonne Goolagong: The New York Yankees are the most anointed team, with 59 cover appearances. (The Florida Marlins have appeared twice, once per World Series victory.) Michael Jordan leads the way among individual athletes with 49 showings, while IOM had to look up George Chuvalo, who appears on a surprising three. And then there are the "sports" that have received the cover treatment: cards (four times), dog shows (seven), and delightfully, autumn walks.

Economist

Economist, Nov. 8
Depending on your perspective, the star-spangled thumb on the cover of this issue on the United States either points up to "Greatest hope?" or down, signifying "Greatest danger?" In the introduction to the cover package, the mag goes with hope, arguing that the willingness to intervene makes the United States a rare nation—"one prepared to shoulder responsibilities and to do what it thinks is right." And on account of its "demographic vitality" and "economic vigour," the United States will likely only get stronger. … It was a loud Guy Fawkes Night in Britain this past Nov. 5. With eardrum poppers like the Giant Flash Report rocket cheap and plentiful, fireworks-related mayhem is on the rise—2,237 were lighted in British telephone booths last year. But banning fireworks won't cut down on "yobbishness." The solution is more vigorous policing and snuffing out illegal imports.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, Nov. 9
While The New Yorker's film issue focused on making movies, the NYT Mag fusses over marketing, specifically during the October to December "prestige" season when studios unveil potential Oscar fodder. But the insiderish pieces suffer from a lack of behind the scenes footage: Josh Rottenberg's story on release dates, for one, examines the process of selecting the perfect opening weekend without peeking into the business office to reveal the machinations surrounding any one movie. … The most engaging of the four actor/director profiles is Lynn Hirschberg's take on Tim Burton, though her focus on his dark and intricate line drawings undermines her main point that, with the upcoming Big Fish, Burton "has discovered the allure of storytelling." … Strange choices for a Hirschberg-moderated dialogue on screenwriting: Quentin Tarantino, whose words really belong to collaborator Roger Avary, some say, chats with Mystic River scripter Brian Helgeland, who also wrote such schlock as A Knight's Tale and Payback.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, Nov. 10
A piece on Christopher Reeve—and his remarkable recovery since the 1995 accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down—admirably avoids any reference to Superman. Reeve, frustrated with doctors who said he would never walk again, sought out the handful of physicians with radical ideas about rehabilitation and can now make small movements with his arms and legs. He's used his fame to needle medical researchers for being overly cautious (particularly about testing new treatments on humans) and to support science he finds sufficiently innovative. His goal: fast results. "I'm not willing to resign myself to being an advocate for research that will benefit people only after I'm gone." … Silvio Berlusconi apparently speaks terrible Italian. A meandering profile notes that the media mogul/prime minister's "television language" is riddled with grammatical errors but appeals to everyday Italians far more than the "elegant but often completely incomprehensible and elitist" language of his center-left rivals.—J.T.

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 10
On the medical front: Time reports that innovations in medicine and equipment mean only 1 in 8 soldiers die from wounds suffered in Iraq, compared with 1 in 4 in the first Gulf War. With most soldiers donning Kevlar vests and helmets, the majority of nonfatal combat injuries now involve arms or legs. A rehabbing soldier notes an advantage for military amputees: "Civilians get crappy legs, but ours [are] going to be top of the line." … Newsweek spots a trend: Medical schools now offer courses in spirituality as studies show that churchgoers live longer. The mag cites one strange study from Duke University. Those prayed for by an interfaith all-star team (Roman Catholics, Sufi Muslims, Jews at the Western Wall) fared no better than patients receiving standard care, but in a "turbocharged" group, which combined prayer with "music, therapeutic touch, and guided imagery," death rates decreased by 30 percent compared with other groups.

Triple-threat position: U.S. News fronts its investigation into Katrina Leung, who allegedly pulled off the rarely achieved "triple cross"—Chinese agent, to FBI operative, then back to China. Because of Leung's high-level access, which included that of the pillow-talk variety—she maintained years-long affairs with two supervisory FBI special agents—all U.S. espionage in Asia over the past two decades may have been corrupted.

Nothing to Crowe about: Is Russell Crowe a regular bloke, a jerk, or just a guy promoting his new movie Master and Commander? Time's cover story offers little insight. Lone interesting tidbit: The Aussie turned down the roles of Morpheus in The Matrix and Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, Nov. 10
Stephen F. Hayes offers a vivid, first-person account of last week's attack on Baghdad's al Rashid Hotel. First, he spotted a blue trailer 200 yards from his hotel room window. Then came orange flares, smoke, and bloody footprints. Despite his own recent experience, however, Hayes' sources tell him that recruitment of would-be attackers is actually getting harder. While terror groups offered $200 to $500 per anti-American attack right after the war ended, they now have to pony up $5,000. … Admitting that "[i]t's a stretch," Fred Barnes compares Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both politicians are Republican immigrants who've vowed to fix up states with seemingly intractable problems. Barnes neglects to note another similarity: early success. The wunderkind Jindal ran the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals at 24. That's a year older than Schwarzenegger when the then-bodybuilder won his first Mr. Olympia crown.

—Julia Turner also contributed to this column.

Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Josh Levin is a Slate associate editor. You can e-mail him at .
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Imagine if...
Hiatt | What if McCain had waged his campaign based on respect?
Editorial: Meddlesome PalinKing: The Danger of Palin Power