That's Life!

I've previously mentioned that American "name brand" magazines can cost about $20 in NZ. Even the Australian or British Vogue costs over $10. To address this problem, the NZ publishing world produces a few genuine Kiwi magazines. They sell for about $3. My favorites are That's Life! and NZ Women's Weekly. They cover a little bit of everything - celebrity gossip, recipes, childcare, good housekeeping, human interest stories. (Remember I told you about this country's lack of specialization??)

From the cheesy pictures to the bad writing to the 4th grade word search puzzles, you will not regret spending the $3. They provide hours of entertainment. These magazines are like the newspapers I used to self-publish with markers and construction paper as a child.

The magazines tend to pilfer interviews from other publications and pass them off as their own. I'm pretty sure Michelle Obama did not grant an exclusive interview with That's Life! magazine. And I'm really sure she didn't refer to herself as Malia and Sasha's "mum" or discuss strategies for keeping off extra "kilos." Mom? Maybe. Pounds? Maybe. But you can't alter direct quotes to suit your audience! It makes me question the accuracy of the whole magazine. Maybe Becks hasn't left Posh after all?

Celeb storis are a big draw, but, ironically, That's Life! tends to mostly cover death. If your family has suffered a horrible tragedy, the magazine will pay you $800 for your story. These are honest-to-goodness article titles from the past few months:

• Kiwi Confession: I Ponged Out (stunk up) My Mate's Home
• NZ Exclusive: My Baby Girl was Killed on the Beach
• Mozzie (mosquito) Danger!
• NZ Funeral Fury: Bodysnatchers Stole my Aunt's Casket
• Kiwi Survivor Tale: Shipwrecked in Fiji
• Is this the Unluckiest Kiwi? Knocked out. Impaled. Electrocuted. Broken Nose. Car crashes.
• My Daughter Choked to Death on an Apple
• My Husband Cut Off My Lover's Penis (A fate worse than death! Oh wait... around paragraph 2, we learn that the husband also killed the lover. Minor detail.)

The Kiwis' respsonse to all this doom and gloom? Oh well, That's Life!
It goes hand-in-hand with the country's "she'll be right" attitude.