Media Mix TAKE TWO: DoubleTake magazine is the photography magazine we buy in order to read the text. In accordance with its name, it's incongruous: Whatever you see in it the first time will unlikely be the thing that you remember about it.

Take the summer issue, for example. We were seduced by the cover image of a chocolate-brown beach ("Red Sand," actually, on Maui) disappearing into the softest blue-green ocean, bisected by craggy rocks of a seemingly impossible scale when you consider the pale, human figure--a woman holding a naked infant--centered on the photograph's left margin. It's one of those photographs that is so beautiful, you understand for an instant what it means for a photographer to spend days on end without snapping a single shutter. (For the full story, see "Laura and Virginia," written by John McPhee, Laura's father, recounting the renowned pair's career with their rare view camera.)

That reeled us in. DoubleTake was the first magazine ever reviewed in this column, and though we felt a pang of redundancy, the literary bent of the summer issue seemed like it ought to be required reading: A.J. Verdelle interviews Toni Morrison; a retrospective on the fiction of James Welch (who might appeal to regionalists for his varied portrayals of Native American life); poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca and Seamus Heaney; an essay on gardening by Jamaica Kincaid (author of Kric Krac, and My Brother)....

As of press time, however, we haven't read about Morrison or Lorca or Welch, because the first 90 pages of the magazine yielded such insightful non-fiction writing on middle America--from the booming, telemarketing hub of Omaha to the small-town immigrant enclave of Garden City, Kansas (home of a famous double-murder and Iowa Beef Processors' signature boxed-beef)--and other quirky discoveries, like a New York City writer's exposition on the importance and etiquette of "stoop sitting," and New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast's "Planet of Lost Luggage," a true, pictorial short story on the place where unclaimed suitcases go--the hamlet of Scottsboro, Alabama. (Among our favorite panels on found-items in this odd second-hand store: "Someone had lost his Mega-Memory kit. I hope he didn't leave it on the plane"; and "I wasn't sure that the bags of 20 or so previously owned tubes of toothpaste for $2 were such a great deal....")

In the third issue of its fourth year, DoubleTake magazine proves again to be exceptional reading. It's expensive ($10), but it's also a keeper; a magazine that reads like a book, and in fact is printed like one. Quality paper, enduring images. Don't miss it.

IS THAT WHY THEY CALL IT A HARD DRIVE? For those of you who've diligently struggled and patiently waited for the bugs in Windows '95 (and its upgrades) to get worked out, we've finally uncovered the real problem. To find the answer yourself, follow these directions:

1. Open a Microsoft Word document.

2. Type "Unable to follow directions" (without the quotes).

3. Highlight the entire sentence

4. Under the Tools menu, choose Thesaurus (or Language, then Thesaurus).

In case you were wondering, Macintosh doesn't offer the same solution. In fact, Mac was stumped (so to speak) by the query.

*If you don't have Windows '95, you'll find the secret to Word for Windows printed at the end of this column.

SAN JUAN STORYTELLING: El Día de San Juan is one of those native-colonial hybrid holidays, a Tohono O'odham celebration of the harvest that merged with a Spanish-inspired nod to good ol' Saint John, the Baptist. Learn more about its history and celebration starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, when nine local storytellers gather in the Tucson Museum of Art plaza, 140 N. Main Ave., with tales that are sure to surprise and entertain. The three-hour program is free, and is for all ages. Call 624-2333 for more information, or see this week's City Week calendar for details.

*The thesaurus suggests the sentence, "Unable to have an erection" as a synonym for the sentence, "Unable to follow directions." TW


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