Happy July 4th!

Why are you reading this? Close your email and take the day off! Issue 101

Happy July 4th! If you’re here in the US it’s a day off (Did you you also have a short day on Friday and take Monday off?). Today’s the day you cook something on the grill, go to parades, and watch fireworks. Someone might read the Declaration of Independence to you. Loudly. They may even understand what they’re reading.

If you’re reading this and you’re not stateside (Hello 20% of all subscribers!), you may have your own Independence Day or National Day or some analog of a national celebration. I hope you enjoy it as much as we Americans enjoy July 4th.

In lieu of a regular introductory topic and passing along a few articles, I thought I’d dig into my archives and share five somewhat patriotic covers. In no particular order they are:

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one__Mad Magazine - July 1964

$0.25 was pretty cheap back then. It’s no longer on the newsstand but you can find copies at their site for $5.99 - that’s still pretty cheap.

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two__Vanity Fair - January 2009

OK, technically not a July 4th cover, but Tina Fey as president? I could support that!

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three__Puck Magazine - July 4, 1904

Puck was one of the first humor magazines in the US. This cover is from 1904. The magazine ceased publishing fourteen years later, two years after Hearst purchased it and turned it into a fine arts pub. I think Hearst failed to follow rule #1, listen to your readers (audience, followers…)

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four__Vogue - July 1943

I’m a big fan of using blue skies as a background on a magazine cover. This is a lot of blue. But it was smack dab in the middle of World War 2 and the call out is pretty dramatic.

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five__Parade - July 2, 2017

Back in the not so distant days, people still got Sunday newspapers, opened them up and Parade Magazine fell out. It was thin, didn’t have a lot of pages, but it was a fun, light, breezy read that took the edge off of that weird op-ed in the Opinion section.

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Your moment of magazine zen…

Is brought to you by the July issue of Madison Magazine. What an unexpectedly clever idea!

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That’s all I’ve got for you this week. I hope you enjoyed the covers and are enjoying your Fourth of July. Now close your email and go out and play. The Slack “Hot Dog” channel will still be there for your tomorrow.