Magazines, I love them. I even write for a couple of them, my daughter does too.

There piled high on the coffee table are the fat glossies; Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, Rolling Stone, Bon Appetit, Martha, every gardening magazine you can imagine and quite a few food issues. Then there are the lesser knowns; Hortus, Garden and Gun (not what you think),Oxford American(also not what you think), Wilder and so on.

Don't forget People, my guilty pleasure at the hair salon.

But I also remember the glory days of Life, Look, and long-form journalism.

Magazines, bless their hearts, they're having a hard time. When the changing world of publishing intersected with the tanked economy, many beloved names disappeared from the newsstand. Those left have been practically giving them away for awhile, anything to keep up circulation. Twelve issues for $7, heck yeah, I'll have some of that. Anything for the cause.

I still like to hold the magazine in my hands, thumb and thumb through the pages, tear out recipes, save inspiring images, read the shorter and getting even shorter articles. I didn't give them up to go digital, now I just do both.

But the magazines, darn them, they're driving me batty. The subscription notices that is. No, not the little cards inserted at just the right spot to keep the pages from flipping open to the features. It's the renewal notices that have me going all curmudgeonly, ranting like the late Andy Rooney.

It's the little envelopes that warn me with words like "final notice", "second notice", "last chance". Time flies and I think, wait a minute, time to renew that already? Only to find a "three-for-one, two-for-one, free gift, etc" subscription offer. You're good, but why not renew again? I think I'm current until 2030 at this point.

And let's not leave out those "subscription service centers" that aren't really connected with the magazine they're offering to sell you.

Yes, I could go back and check, but who has the time for that? I could switch to online renewal, but that would entail logins and passwords and setting up accounts and passwords and logins and agreeing to terms, and declining special offers......ARGHHHHH.

And the one time I toss those notices? Yep, that's the one that's legit.

In the scheme of things, just a minor annoyance, but thanks for letting me vent.