Save Me

I’m one of those people. The collector people. The people who save special issues of magazines in plastic Mylar bags. Yes, it’s one of my secret shames (along with keeping my photo albums updated, subscribing to Soap Opera Digest and .. ok that last one I can say because then it wouldn’t be a secret would it?). I don’t have an enormous collection but it definitely has staked a claim on a portion of my storage unit (don’t most people in New York have one…?)

In my collection? Various Clinton magazines, Princess Diana memorial magazines, the 1986 Space Shuttle explosion coverage, newspapers from the 1989 San Francisco earthquake (I was living there at the time) and, of course some 9/11 coverage including the LA Times and the incredible ‘black cover’ issue of The New Yorker. I also have the last issue of George featuring the wildly incredibly handsome visage of John F. Kennedy Jr. Yum.

Tonight, as I walked through Penn Station after work, I discovered the first wave of President-elect Obama magazines that have appeared and naturally I had to get them. All of them. Time, People (second printing, I believe, but whatever), New York, U.S. News and World Report and the New Yorker (I have a subscription but it almost always arrives slightly damaged). I think there was an Us that I missed. I’m OK with that.

It’s ridiculous I know. But at least credit me with having the presence of mind to get both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal (one of the last ones) on November 5th. Apparently the NY Times is worth a small fortune at this point. Probably more than my 401k.