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As so often happens, the conventional wisdom was wrong. Print magazines weren’t dead, only sleeping. And when they returned, they did it big and with style.

Home Multi-D printers—we all have them now—made it possible. The basic blank rewritable hardback magazine kit is available for same day delivery anywhere on the planet from the world’s biggest online retailer, nile.com. (The former biggest retailer went bankrupt some years back in the infamous Amazon sub-Prime scandal.)

The blank magazine kit consists of a pair of ultra-thin sturdy metallic covers with plasticine paperoid sheets in between. Fresh magazines can be printed on the same kit, deleting and replacing previous issues.

Culture always trumps practicality and people love carrying hardback magazines. Nothing is cooler.

Fully half of today’s hardback magazines are tongue-in-cheek, but publishers are coy about that. That might be because they don’t want to offend many of their readers in the Midwest and South who fail to see the irony. But readers in the know chuckle at articles in the runaway hit magazine “Shotgun Wedding” with articles like “5 Gorgeous Gowns To Hide Your Bump On the Big Day.” Others read it seriously.

It was in this atmosphere that I launched a free magazine: “How To.” It told you how to do things that you really shouldn’t do like “How To Make Chrystal Meth” and “How To Break Into A Safe Deposit Box.”

I thought it was fun, but law enforcement officials were less than amused. I wonder if key people in law enforcement are mostly from the Midwest and the South.

Anyway, the cell is small but I’ve got plenty of reading. The new model doesn’t need a printer, it downloads directly from the network. Fortunately connectivity here is really good.