What's the difference between a contra and Contadora?
Who are the 10 most embarrassing spectacles of humanity walking the streets of Manhattan?
Is zaftig really the new fashion de rigueur?
What gives with film critics anyhow?
So asks - and answers - Spy (subtitle: "The New York Monthly"), the self- described "brash and energetic" satirical journal that hit the newsstands with a self-assured, satisfying thump in the Big Apple and other select markets, including Philadelphia, this week.
And what is the difference between a contra and Contadora? Well, "a contra is a Nicaraguan anti-government guerrilla, morally equivalent to our Founding Fathers," explains Spy. "Contadora is the name of the alliance made up of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela that has been trying to negotiate a peace settlement with Nicaragua. Many people mistakenly call the Contadora the Contradora. The Contradora is an organization against Dora, if it is anything at all. Furthermore, Contadora has nothing to do with Contadina, which is a company that makes tomato paste and other fine tomato products."
The 10 most embarrassing New Yorkers? ("They move, they shake, they showboat. . . . And you wonder why America hates New York?") Rex Reed, George Steinbrenner, Leona Helmsley, Geraldine Ferraro, Grace Jones, Andy Stein, Midge Decter, Alfonse D'Amato, Barbara Howar and Donald Trump.
Zaftig really is "in." ("Just ask the Duchess of York, patron saint of the Rubenesque.")
Film critics, or at least one particular film critic, are obsessed with ''spidery wangdoodles and little phalli."
There you have some first-issue Spy tactics, respectively: a clip-and-save guide to "Things That Are Confusing"; a Hall of Infamy (future lists: "New York's 10 Most Ambitious Social Climbers," "New York's 10 Most Spoiled Children"); a definitive fashion statement, and Spy's invaluable "Review of Reviewers."
The brainchild of former Time-Life employees Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter (editors) and ex-investment banker Tom Phillips (publisher), Spy is, according to the threesome (average age, 33.3), inspired by the New Yorker and the American Mercury (1920s-1930s), Esquire (late '50s-early '60s), England's Tattler and Private Eye magazines (contemporary) and Late Night With David Letterman (contemporary).
In fact, on the cover of the premiere issue squats geeky Late Night writer and character-guy Chris Elliott (the Conspiracy Guy, the Guy Under the Seats, the Regulator Guy) next to the big orange headline "JERKS."
