March 12th, 2004

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Politics
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The Walrus

Walrus is a new Canadian magazine that aspires to be a north-of-the-border New Yorker. They’ve got a ways to go. However, because new ventures in publishing can use all the help they can get, I subscribed. This month’s issue features a well-written if somewhat self-congratulatory essay by Michael Adams called ‘Continental Divide’. Unfortunately, they haven’t posted the text online, but I’d recommend picking up an issue (CAN $5.95 at discerning newstands everywhere). The essay makes a convincing case for the increasingly divergent attitudes of Yanks and Canucks.

A couple of decent articles which are posted online are Falling To Pieces, about Gary Kasparov’s loss to Deep Blue and The Last Great City Dump, about Yellowknife’s garbage-dump-cum-yard-sale.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

KevinG
March 12th, 2004
4:56 pm

I haven’t read my copy of Walrus yet but the cover certainly caught my attention while walking from the mail box to the pile of bills in my office that substitutes for an in-box.

I read his [Michael Adams] book ‘Fire and Ice’ about 9 months ago. It was pleasantly partisan and Canadian ‘values’ were presented in a favorable light.

The points I took away from the book as significant were (1) the enormous range of values depending on the region of the US you’re looking at; (2) that the values of CDN and the US are not only different but diverging; and (3) for all the blather about the ‘individual’ in the US, Americans submit to authority more easily than Canadians.

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alexis
March 12th, 2004
5:24 pm

Was coming to comment about “Fire and Ice”. It’s a good read, especially if you like reading stats. I’d like to read his other book.

I’ve read three issues of Walrus (not counting the newest one) and they are steadily improving. Apparently they pay their writers $2.50 a word!

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Jeff
March 14th, 2004
2:17 pm

The Walrus has and was viewed by many as a godsend, but really has yet to live up to its considerable billing. I’m a big fan of anyone trying to make a go of an ideas mag, let alone in Canada, and they’ve already gone through one editor, so we’ll see. Luckily, they apparently have the war chest to mature as a magazine, which is a luxury anywhere in the industry.

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