Yeah, they weren't bad in the 90s either when I subscribed to them for a while. A lot of Bill Bryson-esque writing, anthropological portraits of places and things written with insight and empathy. (Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Bryson was one of the people writing for them).
Yeah, I also mean the ones way back. It was interesting, so fascinating. 60s to 90s vibe was good, too, and that classic editorial photography; the colors seeming to drip off the page and take me to another world. “Oil fields in Kuwait at dusk” (this was before the wars), “Women selling turnips at a market in Bangladesh”. So evocative.
