One
Year
June 24 marked Slate's first
anniversary. The occasion was celebrated, here in Redmond, with a gala
black-tie dinner and a nude "fun run" around the Microsoft campus. It was
declared a national holiday in several states of the former Soviet Union (for a
small fee). The new government of Congo issued a stamp (ditto). And in Mexico,
criminals were released from prison in a general amnesty for plagiarists and
other violators of intellectual-property rights.
Do we deserve such honors?
On balance, we think we do. The first year has, of course, brought both
successes and disappointments. On the positive side, we have transformed the
nature of journalism, morally vindicated the World Wide Web, vastly enriched
the Microsoft Corp., captured Pol Pot, and learned the correct spellings of
many difficult words. On the downside, we did get it slightly wrong about the
senator's love child ( grand child, love child ... it's an easy
mistake to make). There was the unfortunate occasion when we accidentally
(albeit repeatedly) linked the word "Netscape" to a site for devil worshipers.
That litigation with Mother Teresa remains unresolved, although Microsoft's
lawyers believe our offer of free Flight Simulator TM software
upgrades was more than generous. Our RealOdor TM streaming olfactory
feature does not as yet work as well as we had hoped, frankly. (We're talking
to the people at StenchMaster about a new strategic alliance.)
One year!
We asked Bill Gates how Slate should mark this historic occasion. He said,
"Give the whole staff enormous raises." It was, of course, a characteristically
insightful suggestion, brilliantly slicing through to the heart of the
strategic challenge we face at the close of the second millennium. But our
publisher, Rogers Weed, was deeply offended by the idea. "That guy seems to
think money grows on trees," he complained. And so, displaying the kind of
corporate independence our many enemies think us incapable of, we told Mr.
Gates his idea sucked. (Well, actually, we told him that Rogers thought his
idea sucked.) As an alternative to Gates' suggestion we have put together a
special
selection of Slate articles published during our first year. We all agree
that perusing some of the highlights from a year of Slate is far more
pleasurable than a large raise. But try it and judge for yourself.
Black and
White and Read Online
We inaugurate a new feature
this week called "Today's Papers." To be updated daily (six days a week), it is a
summary and instant analysis of the lead stories in five major U.S. newspapers:
the New York Times , the Washington
Post , the Wall
Street
Journal , USA
Today , and the Los Angeles
Times . The author, Los Angeles writer Scott Shuger, will report what the
papers chose as the day's big stories, assess how they played those stories
(both placement and content), and tell us about any exclusives or unique
pieces. Today's Papers will, of course, link where possible to the full stories
on these newspapers' own Web sites.
We aim to
post Today's Papers by 12 a.m. Pacific Time (3 a.m. Eastern Time) on the day of
publication, Sunday through Friday. So if you're one of those people who
doesn't bother to get five newspapers home delivered each morning, go to
www.slate.com for a quick
briefing before you face the world so you can embarrass less informed friends
and colleagues throughout the day.
Gear
Alert
Too many
people, we regret to report, are attempting to read Slate without the proper
equipment. The proper equipment, according to the Webzine Safety Task Force of
the American Academy of Internet Bores (AAIB), is a Slate T-shirt and matching
baseball cap. Attempting to access Slate while improperly dressed can lead to
slow download time and even, in some cases, to the implosion of your computer.
Please take a few moments to order the appropriate gear, directly from the
Web (scroll right to find the Slate stuff) or, if you still use one of
those old telephone things, by calling 800-380-3180 (24 hours a day, seven days
a week).
Resting
on Our Laurels
In honor of Slate's first
birthday, as well as the United States of America's 221 st , Slate
will not publish next week. The site, of course, will still be available,
including all current contents, "The Compost," and "The Fray." Today's Papers will be updated daily throughout
the week. And there may even be the occasional "Dialogue" entry or "Chatterbox" item.
You never know. But Slate's editors and staff will be spending the week in
various mountain retreats, perfecting the spiritual arts of transcendental
meditation and HTML coding. Regular posting of new material will resume the
evening of Monday, July 7.
--Michael Kinsley
