Preparing For (Almost) 50 Years

Over your lifetime, which magazine have you read most faithfully?

Considering my abiding interests, it's surprising no magazine about books or film has ever been of more than passing interest to me. Though I was briefly subscribed to High Fidelity and Guitar Player both quickly lost their luster. Books I've geekily consumed about those three interests of mine? Different post.

But in a startlingly clear high school memory, I recall asking a classmate who'd won a current events contest how he knew all that stuff. He told me he read Time each week. Except for a few very thin years when even a magazine subscription was a luxury, I've read Time faithfully since not long after that high school conversation.

Culturally, Time has always struck me as mainstream, a bell curve magazine if ever there was one. Since mainstream has somehow become linked to the "liberal media" in today's over-heated political climate, I'm guessing Time's earlier reputation as politically moderate would be challenged by some. However, when I want to confirm my own left leaning bias, I'll choose Rolling Stone or Mother Jones as source material over the politics of Time. And I suspect people on the opposite side of the political spectrum as I would be just as likely to eschew Time to buttress their politics. They've got US News and World Report or National Review to confirm their biases. 

My loyalty to Time has never been connected to politics or culture anyway. I think I've been steadily preparing for the next current events contest.