Though its print circulation peaked at around 4,000 readers,LiP was a training ground for many of today’s young writers, thinkers, artists and activists—many of whom have gone on to work for other publications, In These Times included. Mattilda is now an editor forMake/Shift, one of the most promising entries into the print world since LiP’s untimely passing. Other notable authors and interviewees in Tipping the Sacred Cow include Jeff Chang, damali ayo, Kari Lydersen and Neelanjana Banerjee.

Not everything in Tipping sparkles. Neal Pollack, of Alternadad fame, is decidedly lackluster with his satirical “I Love to Burn the Flag,” and almost all of the anthology’s fiction and prose pieces come off as trite retreads rather than sacred cattle prods.

When compared to LiP’s other articles on gender and sexuality, pieces like “Gender Ninja, Gender Pirate” fall flat in their attempts to shock with laughable lines like, “What was the difference between piracy and cultural appropriation? If you asked the gender pirate that question, you’d get a poke in the eye and a kick between the legs.”

The missteps, however, are rare. From LiP’s staff-wide treatise on the ethics of poop to the misuses of renewable energy on Indian reservations, Tipping the Sacred Cow serves as a worthy headstone for a publication that died before its time.