In addition to being a source of crucial information, magazines can also be fanned across a coffee table to conceal almond-butter stains or rolled into a handy bopping device to stun tarantulas. Get a steady supply of spider-boppers with today's deal: for $5, you get a one-year monthly subscription to Los Angeles magazine (a $9.95 value). You can also use this Groupon to extend an existing subscription.

Since 1961, Los Angeles magazine has produced an entertaining monthly compendium of award-winning feature writing, investigative journalism, and cultural information. Subscribers can sink their teeth into these glossy paper fruits (and benefit from the added dietary roughage) by paying a mere $0.83 per issue, or, to put it in perspective, an approximately 50-minute thrill ride atop a berserk laundromat dryer. A winner of four categories—Criticism, Food or Dining Writing, Column, and Designer of the Year—at the 2010 City and Regional Magazine Awards, Los Angeles positions itself as the ultimate handbook to the Southern California lifestyle, infinitely preferable to perusing the Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

The cultural info contained within the magazine’s pages helps readers keep abreast of trends in fashion and design, and fill their free time with concert, film, fitness, and cultural recommendations. The Perfect Day shares ideas on how to best spend a lazy Sunday, a day playing hooky, or 24 hours with a train-obsessed cartoon mouse. And Party Throwing 101 shares tips on the best venues for party supplies and pony rentals. The robust dining section presents an impeccable guide to the city's food scene with vivid color photography that can be cut out, pasted to cardboard, and arranged on the dining table for an elegant pretend-meal at home. Soak up features such as LA's Best Beaches, Let’s Do Lunch!, and Small Town Adventures, and impress friends, coworkers, and any of LA's many clones of Charlie Chaplin.