If you're an undergraduate majoring in political science, attending the 2004 Republican National Convention is something to brag about to classmates. If you're also an editorial intern at Time magazine, it's a good reason to miss the first week of classes. If the Time building in which you work is less than 20 blocks away from the convention at Madison Square Garden-and you have a press convention pass-it's better than college; it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (professors take note).
Then there are the parties: breakfast with C.N.N. anchors, a forum at the Council on Foreign Relations, a luncheon with senators, dinner at William F. Buckley's home. Of course, now that I've dropped them, I can say that names no longer impress me, since my office (not a cubicle) is mere doors away from Joel Stein (columnist); Joe Klein (author of Primary Colors); Romesh Ratnesar (world editor); Nancy Gibbs (the go-to cover-story writer); Jeffrey Kluger (co-author of Apollo 13); and Lisa Beyer (nation editor). As a 21-year-old, I only hope my future can compete with my present.
But what a present it has been. For contributions to the "Notebook" section, which leads the magazine and includes, inter alia, the "Performance of the Week," "Verbatim," "Milestones" and "TK Years Ago in Time," my name appears each week in print. In the August 2 issue I received my own byline for a "splash" I wrote on forthcoming books related to Donald Trump's "Apprentice" show. Two weeks earlier, I transcribed an interview Time conducted with John Kerry and John Edwards. The uncut copy showed some sharp contrasts: Edwards, whose optimistic vocabulary reflected his boyish sunniness and who, since Kerry had publicly picked him just three days earlier, strove to demonstrate deference, only to reveal diffidence, and Kerry, who alternated between undue gravitas, when others laughed, and anger, when Time noted he had said in December that if he were not running, he would vote for Dick Gephardt.
On the lighter side, last week at the famous Avalon nightclub, I attended the book launch for Jenna Jameson's How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale (Regan). So impressed were Jenna's handlers that Time would cover this event, I found myself interviewing the allegedly "most downloaded woman" and her eager colleagues. In a more tasteful setting, Time's managing editor once solicited my opinion on the cover for our Las Vegas story. Out of the five pictures of scantily clad women dancing on a table, which did I prefer and why? It was obvious that the cover would primarily appeal to a young demographic, so I was direct and chose the one that displayed an additional girl. (My choice prevailed.)
Two weeks later-because balance is a guiding principle at Time-we put swimming phenom Michael Phelps on the cover, clad in even skimpier attire. But whereas Phelps was an easy choice, discussion over the July 12 cover pitted Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" against Saturn and the Cassini-Huygens probe. It was a challenging and lively debate among the senior editors, and left unconcluded until Saturday, when Time goes to press.
Yet the world at large sees only the final product, which led one reader to conclude: "Contrary to what the media have been blaring, the most important news story today is not" Iraq. "Of far deeper significance, in the long run, are the revelations coming to light-dazzling, glorious light-one billion miles away. The discoveries of the Cassini probe will be remembered when the names of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein are long forgotten. It is not people of their ilk who will take human civilization to the stars." Alas, nor will journalists take human civilization to the stars, but we will make the experience vicarious-provided we don't spend all our time hobnobbing.
