advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket-or grabbo disappoints

so today is the day we "listen to the world" with the new york times sunday magazine...given the times recent up-swelling of anti-trump, pro democracy and "for the street" populism i had hoped there would be a series of stories humanizing the segments of the population vilified by the howling ,nativist, xenophobic, wildly distasteful trump base...with general electric leading the corporate charge of tolerance...i was somewhat optimistic in thinking this ( those of you who know me should stop gaping at that howler and remember the capacity for sarcasm )..what i got in my bulky sunday paper ( we will get to the causality of that bulk soon enough ) was the annual "voyages" issue

the times' annual paean to the wonders of travel photography...there is something of a difference this year however and it is the key to the ears that have cropped up in high definition photographs in their pages of late...

this editor's note stapled to the binding outside the magazine...

and this page of "detailed instructions" informed me that in an effort to move towards a more appreciable simulacrum of the natural world the times has provided a soundtrack for the photos i can listen to while i peruse the magazine if i sign into the times' web site...imagine my excitement...i was somewhat surprised at the dearth of advertising in this week's magazine...there were only ten pages of it and that was all dominated by general electric...and, since this whole effort to make my sunday a more natural place was "supported by" the same general electric one supposes that the pages were provided at a substantial discount...we should, however, not be over concerned about the times' fiscal health...

the bulk in today's times came, in part, from the "t magazine design and luxury" issue ( you know how we all crave luxury...the times wants us to and they want us to move beyond voyeurism and, if necessary, into debt to taste a bit of it ) 228 glossy pages of articles about the wonders available to us if we have the cash and 105 color pages of advertising for such necessities as italian leather couches, patron tequila, vacations in alabama, and tod's shoes that brought $11,467,575 into the times' coffers ( per the latest advertising rates i can find at the ny times )...they may have discounted general electric but they didn't lose money...so...fiscal health at the cost of social responsibility...it is the corporate way and the media are nothing if not corporate entities whose purpose is to make money, not necessarily by disseminating factual information...

i have closed with a photo of pepe mujica ( on the left side ) to cleanse the palate.