Best Headline in Recent Memory. Plus, a Good Magazine You May Not Know About

Punning headlines are usually lamentable -- I saw "War and Peas" on a story about new farms being established in a former combat area -- but this is a worthy exception. I guess the reason is that it's not just a lame "War and Peas"/"Tomorrow is Another Play"-style alteration of a familiar phrase but an actual joking concept. Nice job.  

And while I'm on the "nice job" theme, my current nominee for "publication consistently doing a better job than most people realize" is the still-in-its-infancy (founded 2008) MIller-McCune magazine, out of Santa Barbara CA. Back in my idealistic youth, I liked to say that the purpose of journalism was to "make what matters interesting." It's easy enough to make interesting things interesting -- sports, scandals, disasters, movie stars -- and it's even easier to make important things dull. What makes journalism different from sheer entertainment is that it is supposed to deal with "real" issues, problems, and concepts. Presenting them in a way that holds people's attention -- that's the standard journalism, in its different forms, is always aiming for. Terry Gross does it in one way, Michael Lewis in another, the list could go on. Miller-McCune is earning a place on that list. The current issue has good items on climate change (eg this), the effect of tech-on-life death-and-rebirth of the press, and lots more.

Disclosure: I wrote a "good luck to this new magazine!" essay for the debut issue in 2008 but have had no dealings with it since. I'm a satisfied reader, though, and wish it all success.