The Power Issue

As Huey Lewis and the News can attest to, the power of love is a curious thing. And power more generally in the 2020s gets curiouser and curiouser – in this issue we explore it all. This past year we’ve seen so much people power: the resilience of regular Ukrainians (p74), the power of protest in Iran, the power of the people at the World Cup protesting in support of Palestine and denouncing Israel’s apartheid, the power of the World Cup itself, to bring people together from all over the world, in a city as unexpected as Doha. In our movie section (p324), we deep-dive into the movies that have captivated the world with their power ballads, because if a power ballad isn’t power, we don’t know what is. We have the history of one of the greatest possible playground feats of power, the thumb war – it’s fearsome (p62). And we explore the strange world of slap fighting – the man or woman with the most powerful slap takes all. Of course, we have He-Man, because – by the power of Greyskull – he has the power. We have wizards and witches; magicians and mages, because they also have the power. And what issue of Sorbet would be complete without a quiz, to see if you have the power too. And as if all that power wasn’t enough to blow the very grid to bits, we have Khloé Kardashian. The Kardashian/Jenner klan collectively control billions of dollars in business, captivate a global audience that dwarfs all audiences ever, and Khloé, with her scintillating wit, her business savvy, and, because there is no possible way to reduce someone so decidedly dynamic to looks, I’ll say it – has the most banging bod to date. When we concepted this issue, and decided on power as our theme, we barely dared to dream we might get Khloé. But more power to us, and more power to you, we stepped into our power.