I’ve decided that I’m going to get a subscription to something. Something that keeps feeding me with those random facts that I crave so, but also motivates me to do further reading on the topic of the article thus increases my knowledge of everything by another .0000000000000000000000001%.
The only magazine that came to my mind was something I rememberd my mother always having around the house, [Utne].
Any other suggestions?
Harpers
Almost worth it just for the terrific index of interesting stats in each issue (harpers.org/MostRecentIndex.html check that out if you don’t know what I’m talking about), but it also contains lots of interesting articles. For example, I recently read in there about hemispherectomies, an incredible surgery where doctors remove half of a person’s brain, due to horrible seizures, and the person lives a fairly normal life afterwards)
The Atlantic
Lots of very-well written articles and fiction, but often the pieces are too long (but one can always quit half way through).
New Yorker
Almost worth it just for the great cartoons, but also lots of interesting articles.
[quote=“miltownkid”]
Any other suggestions?[/quote]
Mad is ok…SOF is cool…and Nerve is always stimulating.
dccomics.com/mad/
sofmag.com/news/index.html
nerve.com/index.asp
Virginia Quarterly Review was recently nominated for 6 national magazine awards, and won two for General Excellence and Fiction.
Besides the New Yorker and Harper’s (though I’m not a fan of their post 9/11 politics), I’d recommend a subscription to the Economist.
Man, now I’m feeling depressed. Back home, I was rooming with several other people with excellent taste in magazine subscriptions, so we always had issues of the Economist, the NY Review of Books, The New Republic, etc. hanging around. Nothing like sitting on the can for 20 minutes while reading a weighty piece on the Middle East. Reading NYT and various center-left political blogs on the Web is a poor, poor substitute.
[quote=“alidarbac”]Besides the New Yorker and Harper’s (though I’m not a fan of their post 9/11 politics), I’d recommend a subscription to the Economist.
Man, now I’m feeling depressed. Back home, I was rooming with several other people with excellent taste in magazine subscriptions, so we always had issues of the Economist, the NY Review of Books, The New Republic, etc. hanging around. Nothing like sitting on the can for 20 minutes while reading a weighty piece on the Middle East. Reading NYT and various center-left political blogs on the Web is a poor, poor substitute.[/quote]
Get an online subscription of the Economist and TNR if you miss them. Same with The Atlantic.
Utne Reader is a great magazine.
Something that may interest you though is Scientific American. The July Issue was awesome It had a great story about this:
[quote]The Expert Mind
The development of expertise [/quote]
They have it at Page One.
The O magazine. Oprah’s magazine. 
The Economist or New Scientist
I like the Economist, Business Week and Wired, although I guess only one of those seem to be considered brainy. However, I tend to learn a lot more from the Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan and Men’s Uno. Who has found a magazine now that can offer more than the Internet can? That’s the one I would like to buy.
Can you wipe your butt with the Internet when you run out of TP? 
Have you looked at www.aldaily.com? It has at one site : newspapers from around the world, magazines from around the world, many of the top commentary writers,blogs major book review publications as well as a daily selected news article, book review and commentary.
It just ain’t the same, curling up on a nice sofa with a strong cup of black coffee and a good New Yorker story in hand, with some friends chatting in the background, or maybe some live Coltrane CD. Christ, I’ve got to get out of the sticks. The only social intercourse I’ve been able to find with other big noses is yelling across a bar, “Yo, how fucked did you get last night?”
Anyhow, besides 3quarksdaily.com for your pseudo-intellectual reading material needs.
My bro just gave me two magazine subscriptions for my birthday: the New Yorker and Atlantic. they should start arriving soon. I like 'em both, but I have absolutely zero free time. When I’m not at the office or with my young daughter, I’m trying to excercise or study Chinese. So, I’m afraid the mags will largely be wasted on me (especially the NYer – isn’t it weekly or bimonthly?). I’ll try to check them out occassionally, but I’m also hoping my wife might pick them up and look at them as she suggested (though that’s somewhat unlikely).
For what it’s worth, I’d suggest the Economist. It’s well-written, concise, and thoughtful. Businessweek has gone downhill. The New Yorker has headed south since Tina Brown sacked some of their best staff. Hope this helps. 
I subscribed to the Economist for a year in HK and found it hit and miss. Some great articles but some whol issues with nothing that interested me. I read the Financial Times every day online and usually find some interesting more off the wall stuff in there, having read some of your other posts Miltownkid I think your orginal suggestion will suit your personlaity best. I am assuming that the magazine you mention switches subjects frequently and randomly thus holding your interest? The Economist and many of the other magazines here tend to follow a theme in each issue so may require more focus. As an aside the only magazine I buy regularly now is Men’s Health which I buy on the pretext of motivating me to go to the gym more but it usually has a good selection of fashion, technology, a little politics and of course some great fitness related articles in it.
Harpers is very diverse, and I enjoy most of what I read. OR I could get my mum to send you the Brentford and Chiswick Chronicle if you like. It comes free on a Friday night, and if the dog doesn’t get to it first it has some good articles about broken kettles etc.
MTK, whats your bag baby? You want little facts, watch a TV show from the UK called Q.I. (Quite Interesting) it’s got lots of interesting facts.
I used to get my mum to send me ‘Puzzle Monthly,’ which contains crosswords, word association puzzles, spot the mistakes, sudoku, logic problems. The brain is all about making new connections and then filling them with stuff later on. I use those puzzle books as a kind of warm-up for my brain, then I read a book or something for the main ‘acquiring knowledge’ time. Works for me. Plus they are GREAT in traffic jams. Whenever the traffic bogs up (most Sundays) I would get MrsHill to read me crossword clues for the rest of the journey. Stopped us fighting.
I know you want a magazine, but I recommend the Asian Wall Street Journal newspaper. The weekend edition is great. It’s a literary gem with plenty of interesting (and educational) articles. I read it every day. Plus, it’s chock full of business info, if you’re into that kind of thing.
It just ain’t the same, curling up on a nice sofa with a strong cup of black coffee and a good New Yorker story in hand, with some friends chatting in the background, or maybe some live Coltrane CD. Christ, I’ve got to get out of the sticks. The only social intercourse I’ve been able to find with other big noses is yelling across a bar, “Yo, how fucked did you get last night?”
Anyhow, besides 3quarksdaily.com for your pseudo-intellectual reading material needs.[/quote]
I don’t have a nice sofa at the moment, and I’d rather pin myself than read a New Yorker story. But I get your point. Personally, I have no problem spending lots of time at my computer reading. An donline subscriptions give me access to magazines at work too. In fact, what am I doing reading YOU?
OH OH OH!!! Playboy!! I hear they have really good and intelligent articles, 
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