Ogden Nash on magazines
NEWSREEL OF A CHANGING WORLD
By OGDEN NASH.
Author of "Hard Lines," "FreeWheeling," and "Happy Days"
I do not care for digests, as a rule.
I loathe the knowledge -- in-a-nutshell school,
Philosophy writ that he who runs may read
And history capsules, culture guaranteed..
The erudition gleaned from tabloid courses
Less valid seems than Mexican divorces,
And minds that feed on literary gossip
Make fiddlers change their flames from George to Ossip.
There's no fool like a semi-literate fool
I do not care for digests, as a rule.
Such being his convictidns, what a wry jest!
This bard is wedded to THE READER'S DIGESTS
No weighty periodical pretentions,
Settling the world with sentiments sententious;
No roll-your-own-degree-young-fellow college,
No Bar-B-Q on the royal road to knowledge;
But faithful before your eyes unfurled,
An accurate newsreel of a changing world;
Encyclopedia rather than résumé,
A current record of our seething day.
For digests as a rule I do not care.
THE READER'S DIGEST commands un autre galère.
From The Reader's Digest, January, 1934 Edition, Back Cover.
Update: The magazine is available here.
