Report from the Toronto Globe and Mail:

As a counterpoise to the success of Cosmo’s unrelenting diet of “passion polls” and “hot sex workout tips,” the purchase of more serious U.S. periodicals appears to be on the rise here, although not astronomically so. Harper’s, for example, had paid circulation of 26,406 in 2005, up more than 10,000, or 60 per cent, from 2000. Similarly, The New Yorker weekly gained more than 4,000 subscribers and single-copy buyers in that same period, to report a 2005 circulation of almost 20,000. The influential newsweekly The Economist, its North American edition also published out of New York, has experienced even more impressive and steadier growth, seeing its Canadian circulation of 43,123 in 2000 climb to 55,538 in 2005.

Now if only those subscribers could submit to the caption contest! Speaking of Canada, in case you missed it, you know about the gay Mounties who got married last month, right? There’s a reason I’m proud to be half-Canadian: It’s a great country, despite its flaws. As the Arrogant Worms sing, “We won’t say that we’re better, it’s just that we’re less worse.”

Having bookmarked it when it appeared, I finally read Sam Anderson’s very good meditation on Garrison Keillor, which includes this interesting gloss on Keillor’s New Yorker career:

Though Keillor is associated with the Midwest, his sensibility comes largely out of New York City. He began his career in the early ’70s writing short humorous essays for The New Yorker (he later became a staff writer then left, on a very high horse, when Tina Brown took over as editor in 1992). He is probably the purest living specimen of the magazine’s Golden Age aesthetic: sophisticated plainness, light sentimentality, significant trivia. He was inspired to create A Prairie Home Companion, in fact, while researching a New Yorker essay about the Grand Ole Opry, and we might think of the radio show as his own private version of the magazine, transposed into a different medium. The “News From Lake Wobegon” is basically an old-style Talk of the Town piece about the Midwest.

I also love this line, which is as subtly evocative as one of Keillor’s own: “When he speaks, blood pressures drop across the country, wild horses accept the saddle, family dogs that have been hanging on at the end of chronic illnesses close their eyes and drift away.”

Speaking of which, R.I.P., Dakota, you good, good dog.

Almost forgot: Happy birthday, Matilda of the Algonquin. I see her pretty often and, sometimes, give her a pat. She tends to hang out a little on the outskirts of things, but she’s always around, sitting on a suitcase or the counter. I haven’t seen her sit on the small, Freudlike couch they’ve set out for her, but then, I’m not there all the time. I’ve taken a turn away from meats, but for the hotel’s defunct steak sandwich, I’d veer back again.

‘Cause I love you so, and I’ll never let you go. From Yahoo News:

Harper Lee writes rare item for O magazine

MONROEVILLE, Ala. – Harper Lee, author of the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” has written a rare published item — a letter for
Oprah Winfrey’s magazine on how she became a reader as a child in a rural, Depression-era Alabama town.

The 80-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner quit giving interviews about 40 years ago and, other than a 1983 review of an Alabama history book, has published nothing of significance in some four decades. That makes her article for O, The Oprah Magazine, something of a literary coup for the television talk show celebrity.

In a letter for the magazine’s July “special summer reading issue,” Lee tells of becoming a reader before first grade: She was read to by her older sisters and brother, a story a day by her mother, newspaper articles by her father. “Then, of course, it was Uncle Wiggly at bedtime.”

She also writes about the scarcity of books in the 1930s in Monroeville, where she grew up and where she lives part of each year. That deficit, combined with a lack of anything else to do — no movies for kids, no parks for games — made books especially treasured, she writes.

“Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books,” she writes.

Via the Daily Media News Feed.

With “Thus Ate Zarathustra.” I can’t believe it! This calls for a re-listen to his great sketch “Mechanical Objects,” from Woody Allen, Standup Comic. Worth downloading, for money even.

From Jeff Bercovici at WWD:

MORE FOR MORRISON: So much for the speculation that Cathy Horyn might leave The New York Times to replace Michael Roberts at The New Yorker. Susan Morrison, who was already editing the title’s two annual style issues, has been appointed fashion editor, succeeding Roberts, who left in April to join Vanity Fair. Morrison, a veteran of Vogue, Spy and the New York Observer, will continue to serve as articles editor while overseeing the magazine’s fashion and design coverage — such as this week’s story on Cristobal Balenciaga, by Judith Thurman.

Coincidentally, a reader emailed me a few days ago to ask where the heck Thurman had been lately:

Judith Thurman has not written for The New Yorker this year. Do you know why? Her last article for the magazine appeared last fall—an article about tofu in Japan.

You have your answer! And here’s the Balenciaga piece.

“Disobedience” [A.A. Milne; no editorial overtones]
“Disobedience” parody [Am I Right]

As reported by Newyorkette, whose headline is so perfectly descriptive that I swiped it. Cute mermaid, too!

From the Denver Post, a review of David Remnick’s book Reporting along with a nice, unusually informal photo of Remnick with managing editor Hellyn Sher and cartoon editor Bob Mankoff.

For the popularity of birding. With an Inaccessible Island Rail‘s wingspan of help from Pale Male, Jonathan Franzen, Annie Dillard, James Wolcott, Garry Trudeau, et al.; it takes a village to raise a binocular!

(The Rail is pictured above. Don’t go trying to find it, though! Didn’t you take its name to heart? I now have the perfect location for my autumn birthday voyage.)

Two pieces about gay marriage: Hendrik Hertzberg’s Talk, and a pro-gay-marriage editorial by a Brigham Young University instructor who was fired for writing it:

“I believe opposing gay marriage and seeking a constitutional amendment against it is immoral,” Jeffrey Nielsen wrote in the June 4 Salt Lake Tribune. “Currently the preponderance of scientific research strongly suggests that same-sex attraction is biologically based. Therefore, it is as natural as a heterosexual orientation, even if rare…. [L]egalizing gay marriage reinforces the importance of committed relationships and would strengthen the institution of marriage.”

Brigham Young is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which provides most of the university’s funding. Leaders of the Mormon church have spoken out recently against gay marriage and have encouraged members to speak to their U.S. Senators about passing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Nielsen, a practicing Mormon, has taught one to three courses per term at BYU for the past five years, including a philosophy course this spring. He learned he would not be allowed to fulfill his summer teaching obligation in a letter from Daniel Graham, chair of the philosophy department, that arrived shortly after the op-ed piece ran. Carri Jenkins, a BYU spokeswoman, said the choice not to rehire Nielsen came from the department, which has the authority to make personnel decisions on part-time faculty.

“The department made the decision because of the opinion piece that had been written, and based on the fact that Mr. Nielsen publicly contradicted and opposed an official statement by top church leaders,” Jenkins said.

Nielsen said he had long supported the idea of same-sex marriage but never spoke out publicly. He figured the piece would cause a stir, but he maintains he was making a political statement, not attacking church theology. “I thought they’d talk to me about the issues,” Nielsen said in an interview Wednesday. “I didn’t think they would let me go. They have every right to do that, but I think it was the wrong decision. It will breed a culture of fear and uncertainty. Academic institutions shouldn’t restrict honest opinion and the pursuit of truth.”

Read the rest of this galling Inside Higher Education story. Then alleviate some of your rage with comedian Eugene Mirman’s diabolical phone prank on some unsuspecting zealots.