Bid Adieu · 21 June 2001
It may be that you’ve heard enough in recent weeks about the demise of Suck and Feed, but what the hell do I care, here’s my two cents.
I loved both publications, full stop. Even when Suck went on autopilot in ’99, even after Feed introduced the idiotic Monsanto logotype. Feed because it was smart and arch and funny and seemed always to be about things I’m interested in. Suck because its founders were insanely good writers – that is if you believe, as I do, that good writers improve on what they imitate. Carl and Joey shamelessly aped the withering voice of The Baffler (rightly so; it was the most forceful and clever critical writing of the time) while avoiding that magazine’s dour earnestness. And they hired on great people: the ludicrously intelligent Ana Marie Cox (on whom I had a boyish crush for months), the terribly funny Heather Havrilesky and, er, Tim Cavanaugh.
I loved it so much that four years ago I sent in a horribly written, faintly snide nyah-nyah letter, in which I somehow name-dropped Suck, The Baffler, Cox, Infinite Jest, Burning Man and Barbara Gowdy in one go. Within minutes I got a scathing reply from Joey Anuff, in which I recall he ably tore me a new one, adding that he couldn’t care less what “poor little rich boy” Tom Frank and his Baffler minions thought.
Two years later, I was clicking randomly around eBay bidding on old magazines, when I saw that Jim Romenesko was auctioning his copy of the seminal and rare Baffler Number Five, and the current high bidder was one joey@wired.com. I bid, and for two days we inched up in 50¢ increments until the auction closed. I still have it, here, on the bookcase by my desk. I should put it up on eBay.
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