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Copyright © 2015 Costco Wholesale.
®
PUBLISHER
Ginnie Roeglin groeglin@costco.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Tim Talevich 425-313-6759 ttalevich@costco.com
EDITOR, U.S.
T. Foster Jones 425-313-6748 tod.jones@costco.com
EDITOR, CANADA
Stephanie E. Ponder 425-427-7134 sponder@costco.com
EDITOR, UK
Will Fifield 425-313-6988 wfifield@costco.com
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Lorelle Gilpin, Ottawa 613-221-2009 Lorelle.Gilpin@costco.com
Sue Knowles, London 011-44-1923-213113 sknowles@costco.co.uk
Nora Wang, Taipei 886-2-8791-9988-216 norawang@costco.com.tw
Sylvia Youngsun Yoo, Seoul 82-2-2630-2606 sylviayoo@costcokr.com
ONLINE EDITOR
David Wight David. Wight@costco.com
REPORTERS
Steve Fisher Steve. Fisher@costco.com
Christina Guerrero cguerrero2@costco.com
Hana Medina hanamedina@costco.com
COPY EDITOR Miriam Bulmer
CONTRIBUTORS
Annette Alvarez-Peters, Karen Asp,
Laurie Bassi, Tom Beaman, James Bessen,
Mindy Charski, Jackie Dishner, Susan Hirshorn,
Amanda and David Horowitz, Daniel Johnson, Scott Jones,
Jane Langille, Erik J. Martin, Marly McMillen, Shana McNally,
Sherrie Newman, J. Rentilly, Marc Saltzman,
Irene Middleman Thomas, Colm Tóibín
ART DIRECTOR Doris Winters dwinters@costco.com
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Lory Williams lwilliams@costco.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Ken Broman, Bill Carlson, Susan Detlor, Steven Lait,
Chris Rusnak, David Schneider, Brenda Shecter
DIGITAL ASSE T COORDINATOR
D. Ted Harris dtharris@costco.com
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Pam Sather psather@costco.com
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER
Antolin Matsuda amatsuda@costco.com
COLOR SPECIALIST
MaryAnne Robbers mrobbers@costco.com
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jane Klein Shucklin 425-313-8277 jshucklin@costco.com
ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER
Kathi Tipper-Holgersen 425-313-6581 ktipper@costco.com
ADVERTISING COORDINATORS
Kelli Critchfield 425-416-6235 kcritchfield@costco.com
Alexandra van Ingen 425-313-2558 avaningen@costco.com
ADVERTISING COPYWRITER
Bill Urlevich 425-313-2877 burlevich@costco.com
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESEN TATIVES
West; Texas/Northeast: Frank Colonno 201-962-2759
fcmediapartners@optonline.net
Midwest: Harold Leddy 847-446-8764
harold@leddyandassociates.com
Marshall Leddy 763-416-1980
marshall@leddyandassociates.com
BUSINESS MANAGER
Jane Johnson
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Rossie Cruz 425-313-6715 rcruz@costco.com
ASSISTANT CIRCULATION MANAGER/EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Dorothy Strakele 425-313-6899 connection@costco.com
COSTCO WHOLESALE
P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088
999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Fax: 425-313-6718
Email: connection@costco.com
from the publisher’s desk
Ginnie Roeglin
DECEMBER! IT’S JUST about impossible to be unaffected by the many warm and wonderful emotions that
this time of year can evoke. Families come together,
memories are made and stories are shared.
Telling stories with pictures has a history going back
millennia. The explosion of popularity that comic books
experienced last century (and still experience) proves that
this medium had lost none of its strength. At the center of
comics creation, one man, Stan Lee, stood (and still stands)
out. As our cover story on page 25 explains, Lee, a Costco
member, has had an amazingly successful multi-decade run
in the industry, which includes being instrumental in this
century’s wave of films based on comics. His new full-color graphic book, Amazing
Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir, is available at all Costco locations.
Really, this entire issue is about telling stories and conveying messages. If you want
help telling stories with photos, look to photo expert Daniel Johnson for useful tips
(page 30). JONDO, Costco’s digital photography supplier, can turn your photos into canvas
art (page 43). And PBS’s Masterpiece has been providing rich and meaningful stories for
more than 45 years, including several series available at Costco (page 53).
Another aspect of celebrations at this time of year is food. Preparing a seasonal favorite,
prime rib roast, is explained in juicy detail on page 69. If you are stumped on making dessert for a wide range of people, several innovative cookie recipes (pages 62 and 63) take into
account those with dietary concerns. And to select the best beverages to pair with it all, follow the advice of Costco wine and spirits buyer Annette Alvarez-Peters (page 73).
For many, this time of year includes exchanging gifts. Fortunately, there is still time to
pick up items at Costco and on Costco.com. Throughout the magazine, you’ll find ideas
for everyone—family, friends, clients and more—in your life.
From all of us at Costco, the best to you this season! C
Ginnie Roeglin is Senior Vice
President, E-Commerce and
Publishing, and Publisher of
The Costco Connection.
from the editor’s desk
Tim Talevich
IN MY SMALL OFFICE at home, spilling over into a corner of the garage, are a dozen plastic storage containers, the
kind used for keeping files and documents. These containers hold all of my parents’ photo albums, created as we kids
grew up, along with old papers and documents deemed too
precious to throw away. Altogether, these photos and papers
are the record of nearly eight decades of a family’s life.
The collection starts with early black-and-white photos
of my dad in his Marine Corps uniform and my mom in
her Navy WAVES outfit, which give way to one baby por-
trait, then two, four and finally 10, the last in grainy color
in front of a Christmas tree. There are photos of pets, sunsets, beaches (and crab pots and
clam digging), graduations, weddings, relatives, cars (station wagons) and more. There are
diplomas, letters, cards and school projects, most carefully preserved.
This family library has been shuffled from one basement to another since my folks
passed away. My house is its final home: My goal is to create a digital archive of these photos and papers for my siblings, the grandkids and, well, posterity.
I write about this because the ambitious DVD I am compiling will be a Christmas
present for my family (but that’s a secret). Costco is involved because I’m using our Photo
Center to create a photo book and photo DVDs, and in the future I can envision using
these digitized photos to make calendars, cards for upcoming birthdays and special
occasions, and so on.
The project has taken me on a sentimental journey, with family and the holidays serving as the central theme. My dad always made sure to get a photo of the big Christmas tree,
kids opening presents and the family around the table enjoying a big meal. (He could have
used the photo tips we offer in our story on page 30.) I hope a special gathering, thoughtful
gifts and a shared meal are part of your holidays this year, however you celebrate them.
Happy holidays from The Costco Connection C
Tim Talevich is Editorial
Director of The Costco
Connection.
FRONTend