Yankee (Magazine) Go Home

I was going to start out by saying that I may be the only person under the age of 70 who subscribes to Yankee Magazine, but that's patently untrue. Why, all you need to do is look at their "First Light" section to see that on February 10th we will be observing the 30th anniversary of Aerosmith's debut album. (Clearly, the Yankee demographic is moving south as my age is moving north.)

In any case, I've read Yankee for quite a long while - first furtively, and almost embarrassed, at my mother's house (where I also read Reader's Digest on the sly), and more recently all on my very own.

With their current issue, Yankee is introducing a different format - going from Almanac-sized to a more standard magazine size (I don't have a ruler on me - is it 8"x10"?). I'm all in favor of the new layout and design. Very nice.

But what I'm less enamored of is the tilt away from what their editor calls "the elusive essence of New England," to what I'd term "the non-elusive essence of lifestyle." It may have been heading this way for a good long time, and I may just be noticing it with the new layout. (And, true to form, I have already recycled the last of the old-style Yankees, so I can't do a compare-and-contrast.)

Admittedly, there's still a big old ad for Bag Balm ("proven to help heal cuts, scrapes, chapping, galls, and hobble burns. A great sweat."). And the articles are all New England-y. But it seems a lot more consumption-oriented than it used to be. ("Explore shopping and history along Connecticut's south shore." Couldn't they at least have reversed the order? And yes, I'm being both a crank and a hypocrite here. Many's the time I've gone to a museum and made a bee-line to the gift shop.) It seems a lot more oriented towards taking ye' old colonial home and putting in granite counter-tops. Sure, there's an article on a woman who makes Johnnycakes. But there's also a recipe for soba noodles topped with spicy miso scallops. Doesn't that just scream "elusive essence of New England"?

A few of the articles don't seem completely aimed at wealthy, aging baby-boomers. There's one on a woman's attempt to fight the eminent domain takeover of her neighborhood in New London, CT. A short piece about a photographer who winters on the Isle of Shoals as a caretakter. And a very touching story about a young man(now of Wall Street, originally from Eastport, ME), who has set up a scholarship in his grandfather's memory for a high school student in his home town who has overcome some adversity. (No dry eye reading this one.)

And there are some full-page ads towards the back of the book that are reassuringly fuddy-duddy. (Ed McMahon on walk-in bath tubs, reverse aging with HGH.)

But there's too much weekending in the most expensive resort in New England (cheapest room: $1,100 per night), and too much trying to prove that the readers aren't really old farts (i.e., an interview with Bode Miller: "I grew up burning ass after these local bombers on Cannon Mountain...." Forever young, dude.)

All in all, while I like the new layout, I'm disappointed by the content. I'm sure that from a business standpoint, Yankee is heading in the right direction. They're no doubt going where the focus groups are telling them to, and where the money is.

It's not that I'm interested in reading any "ay-yuh" old-timey humor about how Uncle Eph convinced Cousin Henry, the city-slicker, that a cow was really a moose. Or doggerel about the frozen trek to the privvy.... But am I the only person out there still interested in reading about what to me is the real New England: the history, the characters, the beauty - not just the successful retiree lifestyle? Am I the only person who wouldn't mind reading about what happened to the descendants of the Salem witches? Who'd like to know about the hermit in Worcester who, in 1811, carved his will in stone and tried to fly to heaven? Who'd be delighted to find out that Lizzie Borden had an accomplice?

Yankee doesn't have to go completely home to make me happy, but I'd like to see a bit more Bag Balm, and a little less Aerosmith, granite counter tops, and Bode Miller.