Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.

Wouldn't it be neat to run a magazine? A literary quarterly, maybe — something that would reflect one's own quirky, albeit discriminating taste, be a force for good in a dark time, elevate standards, preserve the cultural heritage, promote the young and the restless.

— From an odd column by Michael Dirda in this weekend's Washington Post Book World, in which he describes in great detail his imaginary ideal literary magazine, right down to a long list of potential contributors. Sheer self-indulgence, perhaps, but could he actually be angling for an investor?...

A throwaway comment from one of Virginia Woolf's letters (to Violet Dickinson, 11 April, 1913) comes to mind:

We are only waiting for £2000 to start the best magazine the world had ever seen. Everyone agrees that it is the best idea in the world, but also hints that they can't support the bankrupt. Still, we go on looking up to Heaven.