Why I Like Martha

One of my intern duties at Timber Press is magazine perusal. The office subscribes to a number of titles that relate to gardening and book publishing and the Pacific Northwest, and it’s my job to page through them and see if any Timber books have been reviewed or are mentioned in articles. (I know, it's pretty glamorous work.)Yesterday I was working through the pile and came to Martha Stewart Living. And I felt…excited.



Not that there’s anything inherently wrong or weird in liking Martha’s mag. It’s just that I’m 26, male, and I really love eating $4 burritos. So I’m not exactly Martha’s target audience. But, I can’t stop myself from admitting that it is a really good magazine. Let's use the newest issue as a sample. There’s a story near the front detailing simple-to-make lobster recipes (lobster pot pie!) Later, a section outlines how to host a lobster bake. Then the back page is devoted to something called vanilla-raspberry sundaes with spoon-shaped cookies--so you make cookies that look like spoons, eat a sundae with the utensil you just baked, and then eat the “dishes.” Those three pieces work together to create this imagined celebration of summertime eating.

Some people might actually make the ideas a reality, but I am almost positive I never will (it all must cost way more than $4 and not a single burrito is involved). Still, it was fun to read about. I was “engaged,” as people in the marketing industry like to say.

Dan Leif, publicity intern