HOME / other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Departed DearsA loving, final send-off to some who died in 2003.

By Josh LevinUpdated Friday, Dec. 26, 2003, at 3:56 PM ET

New York Times Magazine, Dec. 28
"The Lives They Lived" issue is filled with charmingly atypical pagelong tributes to celebs, innovators, and regular folk who died in 2003. … Robin Marantz Henig eulogizes Landrum B. Shettles, a kooky scientist whose secret quest to produce the first test-tube baby was scuttled by an unsympathetic boss. His dream accomplished by others five years later, Shettles wound down his career at a shady cloning outfit in Las Vegas, dreaming of duplicate Muhammad Alis. … Jason Zengerle and Nicholas Dawidoff each profile pseudonymous women who found love in the male-dominated world of sports. Elizabeth Hulette, aka pro wrestling paramour Miss Elizabeth, engaged in a tumultuous relationship inside and outside the ring with Macho Man Randy Savage while Mets fan Doris Bauer, aka Doris From Rego Park, found community in her fellow anonymous late-night sports radio callers, who offered touching tribute to her passion and verve for weeks after her passing.

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Entertainment Weekly Entertainment Weekly, Dec. 26 and Jan. 2
Even more kudos for Lord of the Rings: EW names the trilogy's cast and crew "entertainers of the year," and Lisa Schwarzbaum ranks The Return of the King No. 1 on her list of top 10 movies. Owen Gleiberman, though, puts American Splendor, "the most boisterous, tender, and crazily exquisite movie of the year," at the top of his. The magazine's other favorites from 2003: Will Ferrell ("How would I rate my happiness? Gleeful excitement—finished off with a slow wetting of my pants"); The Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD; Brit-com The Office; the White Stripes' Elephant; and Richard Price's novel Samaritan.

Weekly Standard, Dec. 29 and Jan. 5
Andrew Ferguson visits Richmond, Va., site of an "unlikely culture war" over an Abraham Lincoln statue. Ferguson is strongest in describing the appropriation of Lincoln's image by all manner of groups: temperance organizations and beer companies; white supremacists; the American Communist Party; Unitarians, Christian Scientists, and Spiritualists. The long piece's news value, though, is tenuous: The statue went up in April, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, among other groups, ultimately didn't put up much of a fight. … Jeffrey H. Anderson writes that the controversy over college football's Bowl Championship Series evokes Alexis de Tocqueville's notions of America. Anderson, who crafted one of the computer formulas used by the BCS, says the system represents a middle ground, as opposed to "[e]mbracing the extremes of unchecked public opinion and authoritative rule."

Time Time, U.S. News & World Report, and Newsweek, Dec. 29 and Jan. 5
A Time for war: Time honors "the American soldier" as "person of the year" for bringing the nation good news "against all odds and risks." … The centerpiece of the double issue is a long piece on three weeks with an Army platoon known as the "Tomb Raiders." Cagey confidence shifts to low morale when platoon leader Benjamin Colgan is killed. Though they band together to hunt down insurgents in a maneuver they call Colgan's Revenge, there's little hope among the anxious group that they'll be able to find the individuals who killed the second lieutenant. Senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf becomes part of the story when his hand is blown off by a grenade. … U.S. News reports that money is being funneled to insurgents from wealthy sponsors in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Syria with video of successful attacks against American troops being sent back as payment.

Ivy League: U.S. News looks at the undergraduate careers of four Yalies turned presidential candidates. George W. Bush ('68), who resented classmates who "felt so intellectually superior and so righteous," probably wouldn't have meshed with John Kerry ('66), who taught his parrot French and Italian words. But W. might have gotten on famously with Howard Dean ('71), who called snooty classmates "fatuous butts." The candidate with the most impressive résumé: the super-serious Joe Lieberman ('64), who was chairman of the Yale Daily News and traveled to Mississippi to help register black voters.

Funny business: Newsweek puts Daily Show host Jon Stewart, wearing a suit that's half-red, half-blue, on the front of it's "who's next" issue. With plans to go live from New Hampshire and host a third-party debate, the Comedy Central fake newscast will be "the coolest pit stop on television" in the lead-up to the 2004 election. The magazine, though, reserves its most lavish praise for the "feisty and gorgeous" and "impossibly lovely" Keira Knightley, who is "so beautiful she can make you lose track of which movie you're watching." … Time's meandering culture wrap-up wonders, with network ratings down and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy the buzziest show on television, if the mainstream is dead. If so, that's a good thing: "The monolithic mainstream culture of the 20^th century helped define what it meant to be American. But it was un-American at heart."

New Republic New Republic, Dec. 29-Jan. 12
Franklin Foer says Howard Dean's secular candidacy could topple him at the polls. Both sniping at "fundamentalist preachers" and a bizarre, aspiritual conversion story—he left the Episcopal church for the more liberal Congregationalists because the former wouldn't cede land to create a Vermont bike path—are easy targets for Karl Rove. "The Republican Party can write the direct mail in their sleep," says conservative activist Gary Bauer. … Spencer Ackerman says Saddam's capture won't repair the rift between the CIA and the Oval Office. The agency now bases reports on what's politically expedient—e.g., amping up the threat of Syria's nuclear capabilities—while hoping that the Bush administration is gone in 2004. … "It would cost money, and lives, and cause a huge outcry in Islamabad and elsewhere," but TRB's Peter Beinart suggests that Dems should make their cause the sussing out of Osama Bin Laden with "substantial ground troops."

Economist, Dec. 20
Just in time for the holidays, the cover story offers "history's foremost Jewish mother" as a link between Christians and Muslims. In Mary, both religions find "there is no limit to the holiness, or proximity to God, that any human, whether male or female, can attain." … That no unifying figure has emerged in Iraq is evidence of the ethnically amalgamated nation's untidy roots and Saddam Hussein's brutal efficiency at killing those who could "mobilise the support of Iraqis as a whole." … As the Taliban's 2001 ouster approached, government officials tried to abscond with Afghanistan's Bactrian gold, an ancient store of coins, crowns, and statuary uncovered in 1978-79. Attempts to pick the lock at the bank vault where the treasure is stored were unsuccessful, though, and when the vault was finally opened a few months ago, the bounty was intact, in "cheap trunks you use for clothes."

Sports Illustrated, Dec. 22
Alexander Wolff offers a survey course in the history of the retro-jersey fashion craze. In 2001, Philly native Reuben "Big Rube" Harley offered to help jersey-maker Mitchell & Ness market to the African-American community. After a few months, retro Wes Unselds and Hal Greers were de rigueur for hip-hop artists, athletes, and every other kind of consumer—the company's revenues increased from $3 million a year to a projected $40 million in 2003. The inevitable backlash: On The Black Album, Jay-Z announces, "I don't wear jerseys I'm 30 plus," and Claude Johnson, who markets his own line of jerseys celebrating pre-integration teams like the Washington 12^th Streeters, says most retros offer a shallow look at history. "My jerseys are an excuse for a father to have a conversation with his son, as opposed to an argument over why anyone would spend $350 on a friggin' Nolan Ryan jersey."