The North American Review began publication in 1815, long before The Atlantic, which was founded in 1857. It is not our oldest continuously operating publication because it ceased publication in 1940, after having fallen on some very hard times. But it almost did not fall on hard times! A savior had swooped in to save the magazine in 1938. That savior, Joseph Hilton Smyth, was in the business of snapping up a number of small struggling publications, including the Saturday Review of Literature and Living Age, and he bought a piece of Current History as well. Unfortunately he didn't have any money of his own and was apparently spending money [...]

Richard Florida's academic clients like to call Creative Class a "think tank." But his company, Creative Class, actually calls itself a "global advisory services firm," which is correct. Apart from the corporate clients—Goldman Sachs, Citi Group, IBM—for whom they advise on how to reach the "creative class," there's work geared to developers and real estate folks, corporate services and "talent management." And then there's his other clients: cities and city-states, and their business-development corporations.

Now Florida is the "anchor" for the Atlantic's handsome new Atlantic Cities site, (as well as a senior editor for the Atlantic). So the publication—which looks good! Love that Atlantic!—doesn't have to bother [...]

I have no idea why they're covering it now, more than six months after it was released, and it goes completely off the rails about halfway through, as is the case with pretty much everything the reviewer writes, but Caitlin Flanagan's take on the Alec Baldwin divorce memoir in the current issue of the Atlantic does deserve points for this lead: Alec Baldwin's A Promise to Ourselves proceeds from a double-pronged thesis: that American divorce laws are deeply flawed, and that Kim Basinger is a crazy bitch.

While you're over there, check out "The Quiet Coup," a former IMF economist's scary-as-shit assessment of the current economic crisis and [...]

"Conservatives who talk that way don't just forfeit the chance to influence the social norms surrounding the genre. They reinforce the perception that their views are shaped by little more than cartoonish stereotypes. One needn't dig deep into obscure rap albums to find 'human feeling.' Multi-platinum singles will do. Try 'December 4th' by Jay Z or 'Stan' by Eminem. All across America, kids are listening to rap lyrics that resonate with them more than anything else in their lives, capturing the way they feel about their absent father or the bliss of a long afternoon spent in the park with friends or how parenthood changed their perspective or the effect [...]

If you're like me, one of your favorite ways to unwind in the evening is to get super-high and watch Nickelodeon cartoons. (I think "Fairly OddParents" is nothing short of genius, but I am generally stoned out of my gourd when I watch it, so who knows.) A friend of mine is a gigantic fan of SpongeBob SquarePants, the absorbent and porous fast-food employee whose booty was so recently admired by Sir Mix-a-Lot. "He's just so happy," she says, and it's true. The sheer joy contained within that iconic yellow frame is indeed infectious, especially if you are baked to oblivion. Anyway, James Parker offers an appreciation in [...]

So the n+1 editors know about Sandra Tsing Loh, right?

Signs of the recession:

While their website may be offering ten issues for $24.50, in yesterday's mail came a two year subscription offer to The Atlantic for twenty dollars. Disturbing! The magazine adjusted its rate base to 450,000 in January, and would presumably desire to keep selling ads based on that number.