Savvy Woman First to Reflect on Waning ‘80s

In what seems certain to be a year-end magazine marathon of editorial reflection on the waning ‘80s, Savvy Woman magazine has jumped the gun.

The October issue--Savvy Woman’s 10th anniversary publication--addresses the waning decade and lists the alleged highlights of the last 10 years. This calendar will confirm suspicions of those who predicted that we were in for a pretty dull decade way back when President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the Olympics.

Besides the summary, Savvy Woman asked 11 commentators to write about what influenced the ‘80s. Somehow they overcame their collective ennui and wrote some interesting stuff.

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison ponders Michael Milken, who reportedly made $107,000 an hour and “made people think this is something to aspire to.”

Cartoonist Lynda Barry satirizes such signs of the times as “fax harassment,” “rock against whatever,” realistic food refrigerator magnets, car alarms, “dogs that sell beer,” “ ‘intelligent’ breakfast cereals that prevent cancer,” and fashion trends, such as bored looks on men and surly expressions on women.

Of singer Michael Jackson, humorist Fran Lebowitz observes: “He’s not white, he’s not black, he’s not a man, he’s not a boy--you can’t pin him down. Perfect for the ‘80s.”

And of the Reagans, columnist Molly Ivins notes: “His mind is mired somewhere in the dawn of social Darwinism and she’s a brittle, shallow woman obsessed with appearances, but then it was that kind of decade, wasn’t it.”

Mas to Premiere

With actress Julie Carmen on the cover, super-slick editorial layout and content and lots of upscale ads, Univision Publications’ long-awaited Mas (More) magazine--the working title had been Ahora (Today)--would seem on the way to fulfilling its promise of providing a high quality general interest Spanish language monthly to America’s Latino community.

The October premiere issue will be sent to 600,000 Latino homes, making it the largest circulation Spanish language magazine in the United States.

The magazine spans the cultural spectrum of Latino culture, with features that might appear in Newsweek, People, the old Saturday Review or Vanity Fair.

The premiere includes a piece in which Henry Cisneros, the ex-mayor of San Antonio, prepares his favorite chicken recipe, and a discussion, by Pete Hamill, of the controversy over bilingualism.

There’s a feature on the Latino art boom and a story on Latino political clout in Los Angeles, featuring pols--such as City Council members Gloria Molina and Richard Alatore, Democratic Congressman Edward Roybal and Democratic state Sen. Art Torres--whose potential for power-brokering grows as growing numbers of Latinos register to vote.

The publication also includes shorter takes on film, fashion, books, art, health, food, and people. And a monthly Spanish language astrological report.

Listing the Lists

If some magazine editor were to list the months when magazine editors most love to run lists, October would come out on top this year. Here is a list of lists, good, bad and stupid, you’ll find on the newsstands this month:

No. 1--Life magazine’s “101 Things Worth Saving.”

Essayist Edward Hoagland ruminates engagingly on some things that America may want to save from the scrap heap of progress; photographer Michael Melford photographs them elegantly. Among the items worth saving: Covered bridges, goldfish bowls, railroad cabooses, LP records, bottle caps that need bottle openers, independent bookstores, ditto machines, autumn leaf fires, movies without sequels, children’s shoe laces, wood baseball bats, letter writing, home-delivered milk and the wilderness.

No. 2--Spy Magazine’s list of the 100 “Most Annoying, Alarming, and Appalling People, Places and Things.” This list is based on a complex and highly scientific equation that weighs “inherent loathsomeness, misdeeds, mitigating factors, and bonus points.” Also factored in is a new “Trumpscore,” for the “relatedness” of the listee to the man whom Spy refers to as the “short fingered vulgarian,” and who, the magazine has found, “had something to do with every single one of the entries” on its list.

The top of the SPY 100: 1. Lee Atwater. 2. Exxon vs. Earth. 3. Leona Helmsley. 4. H.U.D. Stealathon. 5. Batmania. 6. Naughty Athletes (Pete Rose, Wade Boggs, Steve Garvey, Dave Winfield, Jose Canseco, et al.) 7. The Commie Switcheroo (“Just a few years ago, the Russians were the bad Bad Guys and the Chinese were the good Bad Guys. But now they’ve switched places.”). 8. Lucy Grief. 9. Free-lance Censorship (The magazine accuses the country of a play-it-safe, “Whoa! better not mentality,” which panders, in part, to the “mosquito-like infestation of free-lance censors--a kind of self-appointed Hays Office to the nation. Thus our constitutional right to watch “Married . . . With Children” was put into jeopardy by a well-connected Michigan mother . . . “ 10. Jim Wright. 11. Lyme-Tick Paranoia.

No. 3--Working Mother’s “60 Best Companies for Working Mothers.” The magazine analyzes how well companies accommodate the estimated 65% of mothers who work outside the home, rating them on such matters as pay, chances for advancement, support for child care and benefits (including maternity leave, parental leave, adoption aid, flextime, and support for care of the elderly).

No. 4: Self Magazine’s “10 Food Rules to Forget.” The magazine offers “a closer look at 10 widely accepted ‘food rules,’ the experts say women would be better off to forget.” (Could any of these be the same “experts” and the same rules made widely acceptable by women’s magazine editors last October?) Among the rules some readers apparently bought and should now forget: “Foods are either good or bad for you”; “Just cutting out certain foods is the best way to have a healthy diet”; “You can’t eat too much of a good thing”; “certain foods or food combinations are ‘magic bullets’ in the fight against disease . . . “ etc., etc.

No. 5 Mademoiselle’s “50 Ways to Meet a Lover.” The magazine opted for poetry over accuracy, as the title should have read 50 Places to Meet a Lover. Among them: The tie counter at Brooks Brothers, the Laundromat (“the perfect commingling of steamy atmosphere and clean pursuits . . . “), the supermarket, museums, gala art openings, etc., etc.