At nine and a half, my reading consisted of Mad Magazine, Classics Illustrated, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift. Amazingly, Mad is still around. Back in the 1950s, it was cutting edge, and subversive - but in later years it seemed to go mainstream, losing its bite at the very time (the late 60s) when subversive was all the rage. I have no idea what Mad is like these days. My impression is that The Onion fills the role that Mad used to occupy.
