A piece of my childhood changed, probably forever, very quietly last week as every schoolboy's most favorite serious magazine (not MAD, did you not see the word serious?) National Geographic laid off the last member of their staff.
As a primary-grade student, in a Catholic school, National Geographic was as close to what I imagined "porn" was, not that I had a great imagination. The color photos of the half-clad indigenous women in faraway and exotic climes were more than enough to fructify prepubescent male fantasies had any of us had any idea what those were.
When my father ran school trips to Washington D. C., the Nat Geo Headquarters Building was always a must-see stop and was, and still is I suspect, a magnificent museum.
The magazine's appearance never really changed in all the years I was a devoted if somewhat surreptitious reader and the stories and adventures you could have just by turning the pages speaks to the timelessness of the photography, writing, and editing.
I got concerned some years back when whoever it was that owned Nat Geo sold it to Fox, yes, that Fox and I started bracing for the worst. And then of course, years later Fox sold it as part of the deal, to Disney, where "fairy-tales can come true it can happen to you, but we're keeping an eye on the bottom line and yours ain't cutting it."
And so, another memory/institution has been hollowed out and more or less sold for parts, even though the operators now in charge insist all the changes will be for the better. Of course, they will, but who defines 'better?'
The old National Geographic always told the truth, as horrible or ugly as it sometimes was. Nice to see the new guys aren't bothered by pesky traditions like that.
-bill kenny
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