Two months ago, New York magazine staffers were emailing friends seeking ideas about New things for the "All New" issue. Now that issue is here! It's just as totally contrived as you would expect.

Not to get too wordy (you can read all the New things here), but when you first decide that you will assemble an issue of "All New" things and then set out on a desperate search to fill your quota of All New things, your All New issue will be contrived. It's inevitable (we all do it, hey!). The only way it would have any serious value would be if, staggered by the sheer volume of All New things that he encountered in American life, Adam Moss decided that he would be missing the story by not doing an All New issue. That is not what this is. This is an intellectual parlor game, sparked by the Obama election (also, "The Truly Radical Politics of Barack Obama"? Must have been written before all those cabinet picks). It's like a fancy New York version of Scattergories.

In November we asked, "Has our national craving for the Next New Thing now surpassed the supply of actual Next New Things?" Well the answer is obviously yes, okay, and really it was a rhetorical question to begin with. When things suck as much as they do now, people don't need new things. Old things from when everything didn't suck so much would be just fine, thanks.

[NY Mag]