Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups





















« Former Obama Aide: Oh, I Just Figured Out Who's To Blame For Olbermann's Suspension. FoxNews. | Main | CNN exit polling results...very interesting »
November 07, 2010

The Best Magazine Articles of All Time

So here’s a list of the best magazine articles of all time that I came across it a while back. It was compiled by kk.org based on reader’s votes. And it’s a pretty good list - at least five of the articles included are ones I would have listed off of the top of my head if asked. So far I’ve read about half of the articles and they’ve all been uniformly excellent. Great writing and style can take something you have minimal interest in and make it a fascinating read.

So here are the first ten - but the next fifteen are just as good:

Gay Talese, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." Esquire, April 1966.
Hunter S. Thompson, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved." Scanlan's Monthly, June 1970.
Neal Stephenson, "Mother Earth, Mother Board: Wiring the Planet." Wired, December 1996. On laying trans-oceanic fiber optic cable.
David Foster Wallace, "Federer As Religious Experience." The New York Times, Play Magazine, August 20, 2006.
David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster." Gourmet Magazine, August 2004.
John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." The New Yorker, October 22, 1960. About Ted Williams career framed by his last game.
Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream." Rolling Stone. Part I: November 11, 1971; Part II: November 25, 1971.
Richard Ben Cramer, "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" Esquire, June 1986.
Jon Krakauer, "Death of an Innocent: How Christopher McCandless Lost His Way in the Wilds." Outside Magazine, January 1993. Article that became Into the Wild.
Susan Orlean, "The American Man at Age Ten." Esquire, December 1992. [Ed.'s note: Not available in Esquire's online archive, but you'll find it with a little searching. Also republished in Orlean's The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup and Glass's The New Kings of Nonfiction.]

I remember reading the Neal Stephenson article when it first came out and it convinced me to fill out the subscription card to Wired magazine right on the spot. And Wallace’s article on lobster tells you more about the lowly crustacean that you ever wanted to know and you’ll enjoy every word of it.

MEMEX0L.jpg

But there’s one article that I think ought to be listed in the top 25 as well - Vannevar Bush’s "As We May Think” published in the July 1945 issue of Atlantic Magazine. Vannevar Bush was Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during WWII and also one of the organizers of the Manhattan Project. And in this article written while battles were still raging in the Pacific he predicted how information could be accessed in the future. And was amazingly accurate!

What he calls “the memex” is basically what we know as the World Wide Web, accessed via hyperlinks on PCs. By page 6 he’s taken us to about 2009-era technology. Read the last two pages to see what the 2020s and 2030s will be like. And Bush didn’t just predict the future - he also helped create it. Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the mouse, word processor, and hyperlinking, was directly inspired by Bush’s essay to create much of our modern computing interface. Personally I’m kinda looking forward to the last page of Bush’s article finally happening.


digg this
posted by Maetenloch at 04:28 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Ben Had: "Pug, you will both be missed. I so enjoyed seei ..."

four seasons: " Internet has been out all day, so probably this ..."

Pug Mahon, Balding American: "It pains me and the missus that we won't be in Tex ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "She is bleeding badly in the working class SE of t ..."

TeeJ: " - Sagan and his ilk. He would have been so excite ..."

Dave in Fla: "Looking forward to that hug :) ..."

Stephen Price Blair: "[i]you do know what your obligation is, right?[/i] ..."

Dave in Fla: "Yeah, I was pulling ammo out of the gun safe for t ..."

Ben Had: "Stephen Price Blair, you do know what your obliga ..."

Stephen Price Blair: "[i]Then y'all can suffer through my bitching about ..."

Ben Had: "Dave in Fla, we are a respite for the road weary ..."

Eromero: "She is bleeding badly in the working class SE of t ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64