I don't subscribe to the New Yorker and rarely buy it on the newstand.

I'm sort of embarrassed about this. I mean, how can a self-respecting magazine fiend not read The New Yorker, arguably the Western world's most important magazine? (the short answer: I have a very strong aversion to celebrities)

That being said, I do get to look through and sometimes even read The New Yorker as I have the pleasure to be employed in a library. Over the years I may have read perhaps a half dozen articles from the magazine.

A had an epiphany of sorts this Saturday when I realized that all those articles that I read from the New Yorker have all been written by the same individual: Malcolm Gladwell. 

Malcolm Gladwell's forte is to take many complex ideas from academia and weave them into stories that can fundamentally change how you look at things around you. His story on "The Tipping Point" is like that, as is the piece "Do Parents Matter?" and "The Sports Taboo".

And you know what? He's Canadian, by gum. He's said that he's planted a reference to Canada into every article he's written - minus two or so. I can't even begin to tell you how very Canadian that is.

How influential is his articles? Well, his piece called "The Coolhunt" was not only satirized in Suck but it was also optioned to be a movie. 

It was Saturday that I learned that Gladwell has written a book called The Tipping Point and I'll probably be picking up it up - once it's out of hardcover that is.  In the meantime I'm content catching up on the articles of his that I've missed from Gladwell.com. Consequently, there will still be no reason to expect the New Yorker in the latest update of the Rain Barrel Maglog.