Magazine Death Pool

American Heritage Magazine -- back from the dead for your history lesson

As a holiday gift, The Reaper has decided to "throw one back into the river." You know, being a humanitarian and conservationist and all.

So here is American Heritage magazine, "the 54-year-old magazine of the American experience" which was closed by Forbes, is now back "from a brief hiatus" after being sold to Edwin S. Grosvenor and a group of backers for $500,000 plus subscription liabilities.

For you trivia buffs, Mr. Grosvenor is the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, so when you are connected with history, why not take a flying leap at an ink on paper publication focused on American history?

Mr. Grosvenor, you and your backers are brave souls to be investing in a magazine these days. It's a holiday miracle, I tell you, a miracle!

Radar:It Just Won't Stay Dead

Rare is the magazine that just doesn't want to stay dead.

They're put in my Museum of Dead Magazines once, they rise again, only to be slain and sent back down. You'd figure enough's enough, right?

This has to be some kind of record -- Radar magazine will appear for the third time in less than four years. Did I not hit it hard enough with my scythe? Did they have round trip tickets on their trip down the River Styx? It's like a zombie that just won't be stopped with bullets and keeps coming back for more.

Radar is the George Romero zombie movie of magazines.

The Reaper is confounded that money can buy you a trip back from the grave, so anything is possible. Will it be long before Roshan and his crew are back down here? What does he know that I don't?

I would like to see Radar succeed if only to knock Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair down a few pegs. That would be worth sparing its life.