FROM WHERE I SIT (THINGS LOOK FUNNY) IBD

Sinopse

I subscribe to a lot of magazines - some are free, some are over-priced. Some are print... some are e-magazines... some are both. And they range all over the place in topic, size, and shape - association publications, professional journals, news weeklies, travel monthlies, computer magazines, sports magazines, product guides, and so SO many others. Just thinking about it makes me realize that IâÇÖve got to cut back. áI read several of them - one cover-to-cover. (Spoiler alert - thatâÇÖs the network.) áI skim through most of them. And there are some I never open at all. (I generally discard those when the next one comes and make a mental note to cancel my subscription.)áOne page I skip in almost all of them (but not in the network and youâÇÖll see why) is the EditorâÇÖs Page or the PublisherâÇÖs Note - or whatever the same page might be called in another publication. For the most part, in letter form, itâÇÖs a page like this where the editor (or publisher) is telling you whatâÇÖs in that particular issue, why the staff is so excited about it, and why youâÇÖll want to read it.áThink back to elementary school, where (among other things, of course) you first learned to write book reports. If youâÇÖre like almost everyone, you stretched out the sentences to make them longer because you didnâÇÖt have that much to say, you had to fill up an assigned amount of space, and the book wasnâÇÖt all that good anyway - but you didnâÇÖt want to say that because you might be wrong. YouâÇÖd start the report with something like, 'This is a book report about a book that I read called The Boy Who Dug a Hole to the Other Side of the World by P. Douglas McMaster. I am going to tell you about the story of The Boy Who Dug a Hole to the Other Side of the World and what I like about it. It has 118 pages. In chapter one of The Boy Who Dug a Hole to the Other Side of the World, we learn the name of the boy who is the star of the story - Henry Pecker.áEtc. Etc.áAnd your teacher said to you (and all of the other book reviewers), 'DonâÇÖt tell the reader what you are going to write about. Just do it.' (I wonder if thatâÇÖs where Nike got the idea?)áSo, I decided to devote the EditorâÇÖs Page of the network to humor. You can find out whatâÇÖs in the magazine by looking at the Contents page (which we call the Blueprint). I donâÇÖt want to waste that space telling you something which (if youâÇÖre like me) you wonâÇÖt read anyway. Fans of the network know that thereâÇÖs a lot of great humor in the magazine - the Diversions and Vertical Lines are often laugh-out-loud funny.áThis book is to introduce (or reintroduce) you to the type of humor that you can find/expect in the network magazine and the two compilations of humorous excerpts from it from over the last decade. You can access the magazine (and many years of archived issues) at www.crestnetwork.com . Information on where/how you can purchase The Best of Diversions and Vertical Lines is on the inside back cover.á