I was having a cup of coffee at a Barnes and Noble
Booksellers store yesterday and sat facing the magazine section.
There were four long racks of magazines sections so there
were eight sides of four rows high of all sorts and kinds of magazines. As I
sipped my coffee I wondered how many magazine are published in the United
States and what were some of categories.
From where I sat I could see all sorts of sports and
sporting magazines. There were cycling, guns, weapons, survival, cars and
hotrods, but if you walked around to the various four tiered racks you had
National Geographic, Family circle, People, Sports illustrated, TV Guide,
Money, Country Living and hundreds more and many others from other countries.
In my household growing up in the 1950’s there was Life,
Look, McCall’s, Readers Digest and Time Magazine. I don’t remember there being
as many niche publications that are on the stands today. It seems today that if
you have an interest in some obscure or little known category there is a
publication to accommodate your interest.
“The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731, in London, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban," was the first to use the term "magazine," on the analogy of a military storehouse of varied materiel, ultimately derived from the Arabic makhazin ("storehouses") by way of the French language.[4] Wordsmith offers this origin: "Plural of Arabic makhzan: storehouse, used figuratively as "storehouse of information" for books, and later to periodicals)."[5]
The oldest consumer magazine still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken that claim. Lloyd's List was founded in Edward Lloyd’s England coffee shop in 1734; it is still published as a daily business newspaper."
It’s interesting how individual words in various languages
have become cross-cultural in use and understanding in today’s society.
I wish that could be true in our religious and political
attempts at understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment