A poem:
Talk Talked


On the occasion of Talk mag's announced demise

By Tim McHale


Talk talked, & Hearst walked,
Talk talked, & Miramax balked,
Tina & Ron’s show has just gotten stalked
Their chat book now closed, over & chalked

Her cool editor’s wit once ran loose & ruled
While the tough guy jestered, cajoled & fooled
Their hot buzz machine has ultimately cooled
Now critics & sharks are poised, perched and pooled

You could always tell Tina excited
When gossip was hot, she really delighted
But were high writer fees cause of the blighted?
To make Talk’s talk of success unrequited

Harvey’s idea to merchandise his movies
Was fine and dandy during Clinton era groovies
But did Bush & war and Afghanistan loonies
Bore Tina’s eye versus stories on Bloomies?

For Talk, Tina gave The New Yorker away
Now whose trash will she have to edit today?
Condé’s once fair princess is planning to stay
Though Hearst’s got the bills for a while to pay

Vanity’s bid price for juice to be soon halved & hacked
For street trash on rich folks getting richer or smacked
By their hubris & stupidity or arrogance shellacked
Could these seamy stories now get justly whacked?

Talk was Chic & sleek, though chic got piqued
Her Anonymous sources, & dark stories sneaked
The once ruler of '90s style inevitably reaped
In the end, no loyal readers, so nobody weeped!

January 22, 2002 © 2002 Media Life


-Tim McHale is the chief media officer of Tribal DDB North America. He is also an aspiring Poet Laureate of Media, his voice quick to fill with verse on the great and often lesser occasions of the media marketplace. He lives in New Jersey, as did before him Walt Whitman, after whom an important rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike was named.


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