From the Stacks: January 12, 2007

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Last week marked the bittersweet arrival of the final issue of the Journal of Pesticide Reform. In its 26 years, the magazine has tirelessly advocated against harmful chemicals as the voice of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), based in Eugene, Oregon. The closing cover of the Winter issue pays homage to artist Mary Rounds with a collection of her past illustrations. Inside, a letter from Executive Director Norma Grier ushers out the title with a look back at the journal's evolution and the people who have contributed to it along the way. This spring, NCAP will introduce a new quarterly newsletter -- The NaySprayer -- to serve as an update on the efforts of the NCAP and its members. Lamenting readers will still be able to enjoy the beneficial fact sheets and articles that marked the JPR by visiting www.pesticide.org. -- Elizabeth Ryan

It must be a hard time right now for the editors of the Weekly Standard. Launched in 1995 in the midst of the 'Gingrich Revolution,' this bastion of conservative thought appears to be reeling from the loss of Republican control in both houses of Congress. In response, the editors have chosen for their cover what must be the worst picture ever taken of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Inside the issue, Fred Barnes tries to make the best of waning Republican control in Washington by waxing prophetic about President Bush's newfound chance to use the veto. In the coming congressional term, Barnes believes, there will be 'limited bipartisanship -- very limited.' Elsewhere, Mackubin Thomas Owens wonders if the United States could have actually won the Vietnam War, and Whitney Blake profiles Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, the only member of Bush's cabinet who has managed to hold her position for the past six years. -- Bennett Gordon

DIAGRAM magazine's second print anthology, DIAGRAM.2, elegantly unites poetry, prose, and schematic illustrations largely taken from years three and four of DIAGRAM's online magazine. I was taken with images like the mechanical hat tipper and 'Success Chart of Spring and Summer Collars,' which details once-fashionable collar styles. Several mysterious technical illustrations look as though they could've come from physics textbooks. The poetry and prose intermingled with these images often read like orchestrations of decontextualized memories that, pulled together, take on new, vivid meaning. Edited by Ander Monson, DIAGRAM.2 captures in a single volume the wonderfully distracting experience of browsing an old bookstore's shelves. -- Evelyn Hampton

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