Jezebel: Economist

Hey Public! What Do You Like To Read About? Because We're Kinda Stumped

Moe — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EDT

What sells magazines? There's a new issue of the MIN media industry newsletter out, and the only sure answer is "Not Britney Spears And Isaac Cohen," a pair responsible for the worst-selling issues of both Us Weekly and OK! (Who the fuck is Isaac Cohen? After the jump!) But everything else was confusing. Do we love bad news? Because rumors that Angie and Brad were on the rocks gave both InTouch and its sister publication Life & Style its bestselling covers. But the equally tragic demise of Katie and Tom gave Life & Style its worst-selling cover. (InTouch's worst cover was about the also-sad Virginia Tech massacre.) But what of the Good Old Days? Rolling Stone's best-selling cover was all about 1967, but Newsweek's worst-selling cover was all about 1968. More »

If You Can't Afford Rice In Haiti, You Eat Dirt

Moe — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:30:30 EST

Global food prices are so high Haitians are feeding themselves dirt — or more specifically, mud cookies made with salt and vegetable shortening. AP reporter Jonathan Katz sampled one: it had "a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered." To be sure, this isn't some innovation borne simply of the desperation of the time; Haiti has long been the poorest country in the Western hemisphere (Here's a decent primer as to why), and the immune system strengthening power of dirt cookies, or "pica" have long made them such a staple of the impoverished woman's prenatal diet in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean that some women actually get cravings for them during pregnancy (which, as you can imagine, is not one of those urges the childbirth authorities of the U.S. encourage acting upon.) More »

Angelina Jolie Reminds Economist Readers Of Their Public Jury Duty

Moe — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:30:32 EST

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Yesterday we brought you the news Angelina Jolie (!) would be penning a column in the Economist's "World In 2008" supplement. This morning we actually read the column, thanks to a highly-placed source at a celebrity tabloid. It is about Darfurian genocide; specifically, how she would like to see the perpetrators of that genocide put on trial. "Make no mistake, the existence of these trials alone changes behavior," she wrote. "Like the Nuremberg Trials ended anti-Semitism?" the Anonymous Lobbyist wanted to know. To be sure, Pol Pot stayed alive under house arrest all those years after spearheading the butchery of a third of the Cambodian population, but when he heard the Khmer Rouge would be handing him over to be tried for war crimes, he totally killed himself! Argh. Okay, but we don't need Harvey Levin to tell us: there's something about a trial that makes it all seem real. The endless cross-examinations, the recesses and the crappy courtroom food; you usually don't leave one without thinking, "Wow, something really fucked up happened there and despite some conflicting testimony I'm pretty sure I can see how it all went down!" And think of all the celebrities who'd flock to the Hague! Do they have any better ideas? More »