By The Beachwood Magazine Affairs Desk

A weekly review of what’s on Shipley’s nightstand.
Worst Best Poll Ever
The reader’s poll results are in, according to the new issue of Spin. Best Band? Panic! At the Disco. Worst band? Panic! At the Disco. Best Album? The Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance. Worst album? The Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance. Best Internet phenomenpn? YouTube and MySpace. Worst Internet phenomenon? MySpace and YouTube. Best reader’s survey ever done? Not this one. Worst reader’s survey ever done? This one.
Forest Grump
According to the March issue of Utne Reader, mass urban tree plantings may not only beautify cities but also save them money. According to the Center for Urban Forest Research, each dollar spent on a tree in Los Angeles recoups benefits worth $2.80. Further, there are various studies going on in the Los Angeles at the Center for Urban Forest Whittaker Research on how much return-on-investment he will yield now that he’s won an Oscar.

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Posted on February 27, 2007

By Jonathan Shipley

Filling in this week for an ill Jonathan Shipley.
Vanity for the Bonfire
Vanity Fair‘s massive 500-page March issue is out and causing hernias everywhere. We might be able to take Graydon Carter’s convenient political moralizing more seriously if his Editor’s Letter didn’t appear after 121 pages of smelly advertising. Of course, it is the annual, Oscar-ready Hollywood issue, but how disheartening to have to wade through endless Burberry, Grey Goose, and Dolce & Gabbana ads to find the world-class work of the legendary investigative duo, Don Barlett and James Steele, who examine a McLean, Virginia company with 9,000 government contracts, most in secret intelligence. Which is kind of what Barlett and Steele provide to Vanity Fair.
Not to be missed in the vanity-run-amok department is Michael Wolff’s column on disgraced O.J. Simpson publisher Judith Regan. Wolff is a world-class twit who knows far less of whence he speaks on media matters than reputed, but he happens to have known Regan since college and writes that he has heard her anti-Semitic garbage for years. Wolff confesses he used to find it funny.

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Posted on February 21, 2007

By Jonathan Shipley

A weekly roundup of the magazines on Shipley’s nightstand.
Take-Home Pay
Frank Blake, the new CEO of Home Depot, will make $8.9 million a year, according to Time magazine. Yeah, you know times are tough when a guy like that can’t get a clean $9 mil. Guess he’ll have to hold off on that 22nd addition.
Secret Sex
Reader’s Digest reveals the seven secrets to a sexy marriage. Yes, that’s right, Reader’s Digest. Hey, circulation is tough all over.
Number One
Subscribe to sexier magazines.

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Posted on February 10, 2007

Hello Mr. Steve Rhodes:
The following press release about a college student’s book that could prove the existence of God, may be of interest to your audience. Any editorial comment or mention that you may give this press release would be greatly appreciated.
– – –
COLLEGE KID PROVES CREATION, WRITES BOOK ABOUT IT
Dateline: February 5, 2007 . . . Bowling Green, KY
Contact: Samuel J. Hunt
Phone: (918) 809-6278
E-Mail: samuel.hunt1@wku.edu
Web Address: www.ScienceProvesCreation.com
BOWLING GREEN, KY – February 5, 2007 – In what could turn out to be the most controversial document since a patent clerk penned the theory of relativity, Episteme Scientia – The Law of All that Is, suggests science has been proving God’s existence, all along.

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Posted on February 7, 2007