THE NY TIMES STILL COUNTS

Mad for the NYT masses



Even here in the chilled, Godforsaken wilds of Kanuckistan, the famous New York Times is available.
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And for the past 30 odd-yes they have been very odd-years, I have braved 22 feet of snow and freezing rain to buy the paper that says right on it, "All the news that's fit to print."
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Yet despite all the above, I was just this week whining to my newspaper dealer that the Times-my God, even on Sunday!-is getting mighty light, compared to the good olde daze. Sometimes the Sunday edition is almost the size of the old Friday edition, which has lost several sections through the year.
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But damn them cost-per torpedoes and just appreciate the goodies this
paper delivers, usually better than most others.
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Today's paper has a superb Arts section look at the 1950s, wild man cartoon artist, Basil Wolverton, better known to most of us Boomers as
the guy who used to make our parents hate Mad mag.
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The Times writes Basil up as "the van Gogh of the gross-out," and then digs deep, describing Wolverton's Mad stuff as "an assaultive from of anarchy, rising, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, out of who-knew-what murky and psychological depths." Whew, a good one!
(Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/design/23basil.html?_r=1&ref=arts)
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Anyway, without the resources and journalistic skills that are employed at the Times, such nuggets of pop culture like Basil may go unnoticed by the lumpen proletariat, let alone anyone else that reads.
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Yes, Times, long may your ink run, and your pulp not get any smaller!