“Paper Airplane” takes flight

You’ve probably played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where you connect the namesake actor to another in as few steps as possible. 

But have you ever played Six Degrees: From Kevin to Bacon? That is, with words, connecting the name Kevin to the word bacon through free, lexical association?

Nick Norlen has—in a delightful fugue of original wordplay in the inaugural edition of his refreshing new digital magazine, Paper Airplane.

In his game, Norlen guides us from Irish etymologies to devilish monikers to coprophagic beetles. (Those indeed link Kevin and bacon!) 

And in his magazine, which he launched on June 24, Norlen gives us 70 more pages of writing, art, comics, infographics, photography, games, activities, and yes, more wordplay—all as contributed by top talent, from bestselling author Mary Roach to New Yorker-published illustrator K. Wroten.

Aptly describing it as Highlights for adults, Norlen explains of Paper Airplane: “No ads. No cynicism. No A.I. A tribute to natural beauty and human creativity.”

You can download the first volume at PaperAirplane.pub by making a donation in support of refugees and immigrants.

And you’ll be happy you did. 

Paper Airplane will transport you to those summer days—before smartphones, before productivity—where time well spent was time lost to, in, the wonder of a wandering pillbug. Or the thrills of playing paleontology in the backyard, pretending the chattering crescendo of cicadas signals an imminent ambush of raptors through vegetation bearing leaves bigger than your body, as you can only demonstrate with your arms outspread “this-big.” To flashlight-lit past-bedtimes where books powered ships to alien planets.

Even as grownups, with the logistics of modern life so fatiguing and cumbersome that we require apps to schedule lunch dates with friends, we still deserve those moments of magic and marvel—and not the kind streaming on our plus-named screens.

It’s why I still putter around with word origins, each a curio in its own right, after 12 years here on Mashed Radish. 

And it’s why I support Paper Airplane. Get your copy and spread the word today.

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Nick Norlen is the founder and editor of Paper Airplane. To his editorial and creative vision, he brings extensive experience in journalism and dictionary content. As Senior Editor at Dictionary.com, Nick headed up editorial content, creating moments of magic and marvel through the wonder of words—and with unwavering care, thoughtfulness, and excellence. I can’t believe I got to work with this guy.