Hi, friends:
Since I started working here last spring, I’ve heard from plenty of readers, both via email and in person — and more than a few people have asked me to bring back some classic Hampshire Life columns from past years. “ID,” reminiscent of Vanity Fair’s “Proust Questionnaire,” is one that comes up a lot; another is “Style Stop,” our version of the kind of man-on-the-street fashion photography pioneered by the late Bill Cunningham of The New York Times and further popularized by “Look Book” in New York magazine. Our version of Cunningham, you could say, is photo editor Carol Lollis, who used to stop random people on the streets of downtown Northampton and beyond to ask about their sartorial choices.
Anyway, the new “Style Stop” wouldn’t have happened without the input of one longtime subscriber, in particular, Daisy von Furth, who lives in Northampton. Last June, she wrote me an email critiquing Hampshire Life and offering her two cents about what she’d like to see in the future: regular Amherst Cinema movie capsules, for one, but also more quick, fun reads, like “ID” and “Style Stop,” giving glimpses into the lives of locals. “What I think a lot of readers like about Hampshire Life are the guilty pleasures, the sort of upscale version of Parade magazine columns, that can be read at a glance,” she wrote. “Don’t you turn to the last page of the New York Times magazine first?”
Well, actually, I do. And while I’m proud of the deeply reported cover stories we often run (Steve Pfarrer’s article about teaching Shakespeare to inmates at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction is one recent example), I think a good magazine is all about the mix. I appreciated Daisy’s comments, but what really stood out to me was her tone — she’s funny. Out of curiosity, I Googled her name, and well, she tells the rest of the story on page 12. I was happy to discover that Daisy has as much style on the page as she does in person. Luckily for all of us, she’ll now be writing “Style Stop” on a monthly basis.
Thinking about some of our popular columns from the past led me to some old issues of Hampshire Life, which was launched just over 40 years ago. Another favorite was “Life-Line,” a column featuring questions from readers and answers from staffers. Let’s try it: If you have a question about a local person, place, thing or phenomenon (for example, how did Burt Pits Road in Florence get its name?), send it to me at bhauser@gazettenet.com, with your name, age and town, and we’ll try to get you an answer. Kids are invited to send questions, too.
Brooke Hauser