Two of my favorites, among currently-available magazines are “5280”, which is a magazine by, for, and about the Denver, Colorado area, and “KMT”, which is about Egyptology and is named after what the ancient Egyptians called themselves.
My 9th grade history teacher, who taught that unit, is now a Facebook friend, and I made sure to tell him that I remembered at least that much about it.
“SAIL” magazine has a clever logo, because it looks like a, ahem, sail.
I was at a meetup last night and mentioned “Kerrang!” magazine, and didn’t know if it was still published. Yep, it is.
Funny you should mention George, because someone ordered a copy from me a few days ago. It was memorable because I COULD.NOT.FIND.IT until I looked in a pile of, of all things, vintage sheet music, and there it was. Guess I didn’t go through the whole pile when I filed it.
Not too many “clever magazine names”, precisely because most try to be clear what their subject is (Popular Mechanics, Road&Track, even the hippest magazine I ever read was just called Interview).
But I saw a tiny magazine on the rack, at Barnes & Noble of all places, called *2600. *And I thought “a 'zine of illegal hacks?” Yep. 2600 is the frequency that, whistled into a phone receiver, would grant you access to the admin level of any phone system.
“The magazine’s name comes from the phreaker discovery in the 1960s that the transmission of a 2600 hertz tone (which could be produced perfectly with a plastic toy whistle given away free with Cap’n Crunch cereal) over a long-distance trunk connection gained access to “operator mode” and allowed the user to explore aspects of the telephone system that were not otherwise accessible.”
I once saw a magazine on an otherwise ordinary newsstand called Jarry. I flipped through it trying to figure out what it was about. It seemed to be about food, with articles and recipes. Then I noticed it seemed to be particularly aimed at men. Then I noticed that it was specifically aimed at gay men. I put it back on the shelf and said, “O.K., whatever.”
Incidentally, “jarry” is the word for food in Polari (which I learned a little about in a graduate course in linguistics:
I subscribe to Mythprint, which is the newsletter of a society for people interested in the Inklings, fantasy, mythology, and similar literature.
American Mensa has long had a special interest group (SIG) called EIEIO, with a newsletter. That stands for “Electricians, Inspectors, Engineers, Interested Others.”
In the same vein, 11 Freunde (11 friends, magazine for football culture), of course a football magazine, and one that treasures tradition. It’s from an old German football saying: “11 Freunde müsst ihr sein” (“You have to be 11 friends”)
It was distributed nationwide to NPR donors for a while. I loved that catalog!
As an offshoot of “5280”, there’s also “417”, which is a magazine about the 417 area code, which encompasses Lake of the Ozarks and the Branson area, in addition to Springfield, MO and the general region.
*Wigwag. * An attempt to be a second New Yorker. I subscribed. Good writing and stuff and it was a success until the Gulf War started a dip in the economy and ad dollars dried up.
From Parts Unknown took an entertaining yet scholarly approach “…to all things masked wrestler – pop culture, ring sports, weird media, collectible merch and mask fetish.” I think it only lasted six issues, but it lives on through the website…
Grump–a short-lived satirical magazine put out by Roger Price (co-creator of Mad Libs). Its tagline was “For people who are against all the DUMB THINGS going on.”
