1929 TIME

        TIME magazine is one of the magazines that I respect the most. The stories are interesting, the pictures are great, and most importantly it's not one of those gossipy rags that usually don't bother checking the facts or stating their sources before running around and spouting off all sorts of rumors. Do we really need to know that Brad and Angelina are fighting (not to mention that the story actually differs from magazine to magazine - which one is telling the truth?) or that Britney Spears is pregnant and Ryan Reynolds is getting a divorce? So I was slightly dismayed when I opened the copy of the July 22, 1929 - my birthday's on the 19 - edition of TIME magazine, and discovered that a lot of the stories had a distinctly gossipy flair.
             I was slightly assuaged by the fact that even though the magazine has a gossipy tone, the stories are still factual - I base that assumption on the fact that they are willing to name names and quote sources, which they wouldn't if the stories weren't true (no one wants to be sued for libel) - and most of them seem to be relevent. 1929 was in the middle of the Prohibition, so there are stories of powerful people caught with alcohol, and of powerful people caught in drug busts. I was very entertained by the first article, which was just a sort of hodge-podge of a bunch of different random stories about President Hoover. A bill that people want to discuss with him, his hat size, reports on his reactions to the country's reactions to a recent tariff, and the fact that he doesn't like talking pictures because they require one to pay more attention than the silent ones (perhaps I'm just more used to the talking pictures, but I think they require less attention, since you can usually hear and understand what's going on pretty well - you have to actually watch the silent ones to be sure of what's going on).
         The advertisements are a little strange - they tend to be very wordy, but then again the whole magazine (the entire era, this is the Roaring Twenties, after all) seems to live by the maxim "The more, the better!" I can't help but think of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as I read this, because honestly Jay Gatsby is exactly the sort of man that would find himself featured in these pages. Our advertisements nowadays tend to be less wordy, but I don't know if I would call them more sophisticated - I might be a cynic, but the focus on sex appeal EVERYWHERE and the implied or not so implied instant gratification that accompanies every ad (has anyone seen the most recent Verizon ads? I rest my case) frightens me a little. It was nice not to have to worry about that, for once.