Sunday, November 12, 2017

The late, great SPY magazine

"Why can't you people leave me alone?"--Gran Torino

This afternoon I saw Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino with Dawna and Debi.  It was quite good, with Eastwood at his funniest as an aging curmudgeon who gets involved with Hmong neighbours.  The ultimate message was pretty hopeful. (That movie was the source of the line "Get off my lawn!" which Bernie Sanders' detractors witlessly linked to him.)

You can read archived copies of Spy magazine online!  It's been looking prophetic lately:  long before director James Toback became part of Hollywood's sexual harassment scandal, Spy had done a feature about him picking up women by saying  things like "Hey baby, I'm a famous director!" 

I've been reading the first issue, from October, 1986--with comedian Chris Elliott on the cover--which featured the ten most embarrassing New Yorkers.  Along with people like "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, they cited Donald Trump, and quoted him on his desire to negotiate nuclear arms reduction: "It would take half an hour to learn everything there is to learn about missiles....  I think I know most of it anyway." (Shudder!  Spy famously described Trump as a "short-fingered vulgarian.")

I'm not yet quite over my cold. Still eating those pomelo grapefruits!

No comments: