California magazine blog

Maggie!

The Western Publishing Association (WPA) announced the 2009 Maggie Awards at its annual banquet in Los Angeles. The WPA calls it "the most prestigious publishing event in the West" and who are we to argue? Managing editor Kate McKinley was in attendance for the affair. Good thing too, as we won in the Special Interest/Consumer category for our July/August issue -- the Summer Sports edition, edging out, among other finalists, George Lucas's Edutopia and IDG's PC World.

Go Bears!

Mark Who?

"Who is Mark Twain?" a collection of new (or at least, previously unpublished) pieces by the most famous of American authors, is now available at bookstores. Published by Harper Studio, the items were culled from the prodigious collection known as the Mark Twain Papers and Project housed in the Bancroft Library. In the video snippet below, actor John Lithgow channels Twain, with help from artist Flash Rosenberg.

Twain fans will still have to wait a while for the next product from the Mark Twain Project. The first definitive version of Mark Twain's Autobiography is slated to be published in 2010. Two previously unpublished excerpts from the Autobiography ran in the March/April edition of California.

Political humor

We had a note in our inbox complaining that the humor issue was too partisan, presumably because we highlighted Bushisms in "The Humor Lexicon" and didn't take any swipes at the other side. "Leftists are notorious preening stuffed shirts with no sense of humor about themselves which makes them a fertile field of humor," our correspondent observed. Truth be told, there were some equal-opportunity remarks slated for the issue, they just didn't make the final cut. Lest anyone pigeonhole us as humorless, stuffed-shirt lefties, here's what wound up on the cutting room floor:

I am not a member of any organized political party -- I am a democrat.
                       -- Will Rogers

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.
                        -- P.J. O’Rourke

Under capitalism, man exploits his fellow man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.                   
                        -- Anonymous

Honoring independence

California is honored to have been nominated for a 2009 Utne Independent Press Award in the science and technology category. The selection puts us in pretty heady company. Other finalists in the category include The Scientist, IEEE Spectrum, Technology Review, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Stanford. Also up for an award is UC Berkeley-based Greater Good in the category of social/cultural coverage.

For those not familiar with it, the Utne Reader reprints hand-picked articles from more than 1,300 publications worldwide to highlight the work of independent and alternative publishers. The annual Utne Independent Press Awards honor the best of those.

The winners will be announced on May 18 in Boulder, Colorado. Wish us luck.

Laugh while you can

It's April Fools Day, which apparently means the kickoff of National Humor Month. Who knew? It's also the day that the San Francisco Public Library showcases the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor, or SCOWAH. This year's exhibit is titled "The House of Nat," which is billed as a "flouncy romp through fashion history" as found in the collection.

We wrote about that collection and about Nat Schmulowitz himself, Class of 1910, in the latest issue. Mr. Schmulowitz was also a graduate of Hastings Law -- an attorney by vocation, a book collector by avocation. His metier was the acquisition of jest books and humor publications, all of which he eventually bequeathed to his hometown library. The volumes now number in the tens of thousands and SCOWAH rivals a similar collection in -- no joke -- Bulgaria as the largest of its kind in the world.

If you're in town, you should go check it out. What better way to celebrate National Humor Month? And let's face it: with the economic crisis growing more desperate by the day, we could all use a laugh.

How bad is it? Last week the stock ticker in Times Square just read, "What the f**k are you lookin' at?" It's gotten so bad that even the porn industry is asking for a bailout. And it used to be that when you opened a bank account, you got a free toaster. Now, when you buy a toaster, they offer you a bank.

Hello? Is this thing on?