I am a man between worlds. A kid who grew up with regular issues of Highlights, Boys Life, Mad Magazine and Cracked now is an adult that only gets depressing bills. That little half cylinder at the end of your driveway used to hold promise on your domestic return!
Magazines aren’t a thing anymore. I’ve done those repetitive Asian snack boxes to death. I don’t need to become a Amazon Shop-a-holic I’d just like something to look forward too in order to brush aside this gray depressing void of adulthood.
Could be candles, bike chains, whatever, what minor things do you guys have sent to you regularly that makes you happy?
My kids, at least until recently, were reading Highlights. I pick them up at the library, but their interest has gone down. Ranger Rick is still there, too.
My son currently gets Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for kids.
My daughter gets Mark Rober’s invention thing sent to her each month or so.
I’ve pre-ordered a few things (books, albums) over the years that end up showing up in my mailbox as a surprise to me. Already bought and paid for, to me from me. Thanks, me!
I take part in something called Postcrossing, which is a postcard exchange program. If that appeals to you, you can start getting some great cards from all over the world. You have to also send them, though, so it’s a little effort.
I also subscribe to the Rumpus’ letters in the mail program, which are letters from current authors. Sometimes they are interesting, sometimes not.
Seed catalogs and food magazines. After Christopher Kimball got booted from ATK he started Milk Street. Somewhere along the way he developed a palate because the recipes in MS are spicy and varied and from all over the planet. They featured a Romanian Pork & Bean soup a couple of months ago that is fantastic. He never would have done that at Cook’s Country or ATK.
Join the Shot Glass Exchange next year. You get all sorts of neat stuff.
Critics Choice DVD catalogs (they still send them)
I still get several magazines, mostly alumni magazines or trade magazines, including Photonics Spectra, Biophotonics, Optics and Photonics News (which I still write for)
There are thousands of print magazines. If you can think of a topic, there’s (still) a magazine for it. You might be over them, but they aren’t over. I get a weekly, a bi-weekly, and a monthly. So roughly 7per month or one every 4 mail delivery days. Yes, the publishers each also send me email articles and have a website so often I’ve read most of what’s on the paper before it gets to me.
But if the goal is a happy surprise when you open the box, magazines still work for that.
As to anything other than reading material …
I don’t like when packages, even teeny ones, end up in the mailbox. My mailboxes have been small for a long time now and almost anything package-like in there ensures my mail is then a crumpled-up mess. Nope, packages belong at the front door.
But it can still be a happy surprise to walk up to the door and see a box, poly envelope or bag, or whatever. Although sometimes the unexpected struggle to remember what the heck I might have ordered 3 whole days ago is a less happy surprise. Am I losing my marbles? Oh, yeah, that’s what I ordered. More marbles!
Packages from the pharmacy with prescription refills probably don’t count for this thread.
I get a few travel and hobby magazines, which I look forward to. And the weekly newspaper from my small hometown: let’s see which of my classmates are in the obituaries this week (and what the children of my nieces and nephews are doing at school and 4-H).
Speaking of, I am anxiously awaiting the next SDMB postcard exchange. I’m not organized enough to run it myself so hopefully someone will decide to take it on.
I have subscriptions to Smithsonian, Games/World of Puzzles, Ellery Queen’s MM, Asimov’s, and Analog. The latter three of these arrive within a week of each other every two months. All of these are a nice change from the junk mail and charity solicitations which comprise the bulk of my mail.
Right, the issue is there are only so many things you CAN put in a preserved box that is affordable, good, and different from something I’ve tried. Ramen, for instance, is really not all that different around the world and my entire life I’ve picked up strange snacks from strange places.
But thanks for the replies guys. I know magazines are not completely gone, that bit was hyperbolic, but I think we can agree the golden age of magazines as a media form are behind us and that is a shame as a contrast of the monthly surprises from our youth.
Are there any reasonable “_______ food of the month” type subscriptions? Like $60 a year?
I was thinking of asking for a hot sauce or jam(or cheese spread, etc.) type subscription for Christmas, but one I saw was $300/year, which isn’t cost effective to me.