Who knew David Bradley's The Atlantic could be all things to all hired hands. For Judith Miller, it was a means for her resurrection. For new EIC James Bennett, it was a means to escape the persiflage of the Times. And for June issue writers Charles Mann and James Fallows, it was a means to plug their relatives.

From "How Not To Travel in Japan," by Charles C. Mann, June 2006:

Renting cars in Japan is "not recommended for novices," in the terse phrase of Gateway to Japan, which I would describe as the best guidebook to the country that I have encountered if it hadn't been written by my sister-in-law June, and her ex-boyfriend. (The book is actually very good, though all the prices and some of the hotel and restaurant recommendations are outdated because June has been too busy with other things to produce a recent version.)

From "E-mail out of Every Plug," by James Fallows, June 2006:

Meeting that small increase in demand is disproportionately expensive, because the extra generating capacity is usually more polluting and less efficient than normal plants. "If you can reduce the peak even a little bit, you can reduce costs a lot, especially in some regions of the country," says Susan Tierney, a former utility regularoty in Massachusetts (and my sister).

Next month, look forward to the ubiquitous Clive Thomson plugging wifey Emily Nussbaum's book reviews.