BeigeJournal

On the 10th of November, I read in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper about an article in the November issue of Esquire magazine, “the issue whose cover features Britney Spears not wearing pants.” Besides the appeal of a pants-less Britney, the article, about a trip to Africa with Al Sharpton, Cornel West, some members of the Nation of Islam, and “His Eminence Franzo W. King, D.D., archbishop and lead sax player of the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church,” for the purpose of attempting to mediate an end to the civil war in Liberia, sounded interesting. On the evening of the 10th, then, I set out to buy a copy of Esquire. Unfortunately, it turns out that November is long since passed in the magazine industry. It is already December, in the magazine industry. It hadn’t occurred to me, on the morning of the 10th, that the month was already over, but, alas, it is. Well, if they don’t want my money, they won’t get it. I bought whatever “month’s” issue of The Atlantic was on the shelf (oddly, I think it’s actually November), which is probably more interesting anyway. There is an article on the Columbia investigation by William Langewiesche (whose book Inside The Sky I enjoyed a great deal), and much on college admissions, as Philip Greenspun has noted. No Britney, but, really, I find my lover without pants more interesting than Britney without pants.