While the nation argued last week about what The New Yorker's editors were thinking when they printed that satirical cover of the Obamas, Pittsburgh readers had a different question: Where the heck is my copy?

Dozens of the magazine's subscribers with ZIP codes beginning with 152, as well as those in other postal areas, have told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they never got their issues with the now-infamous cartoon depicting Barack Obama as a Muslim radical and his wife as a black revolutionary.

In addition, several newsstands said customers have been looking for replacement copies for the magazine that didn't arrive only to be told that the edition had sold out.

"The last time this happened was with Lindsay Lohan's Marilyn shoot in New York magazine," said a store employee who's not permitted to comment on the record. The reference was to the young actress's racy recreation of Marilyn Monroe's final photo shoot.

People calling The New Yorker to complain were told that all copies were gone. One said the magazine directed her to eBay, where 373 sellers have posted copies for sale.

By midday yesterday, some New Yorker deliveries were finally starting to trickle in -- up to six days late. Others were still missing in action, prompting theories of foul play somewhere along the supply chain, either by irony-impaired Obama supporters or mail thieves looking to resell the controversial issue while it was still hot.

Calls to The New Yorker and the U.S. Postal Service produced no definitive explanation for the mysterious disappearances or delays.

Chelsie Gosk, a New Yorker spokeswoman, said the magazine has been getting calls from all over the country about missing deliveries.

"It's been a problem. You're definitely not the first," she said.

The magazine is printed in Danville, Ky., said spokeswoman Jaime Leifer. She said last week's edition was handled the same way as always.

"Everything went out like normal," Ms. Leifer said. "Once it leaves our warehouses, it's in the U.S. Postal Service's hands."

Tad Kelley, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Pittsburgh, was unaware of the problem until a reporter called. After checking, he said the agency's consumer affairs office had not logged any customer reports of missing New Yorkers.

Mr. Kelley said he'd contacted plant operations and bulk mail entry units that would usually handle the shipments, but hadn't located a cause.

"It could be that the anticipated demand caused later drop shipments to us," he said in an e-mail. "It could be transportation issues. There are a number of possibilities that we may not be able to pinpoint."

Meanwhile, the search went on for the magazine that many expect will become a valuable piece of Americana.

"Everyone's coming in looking for it, and I usually only sell one or two a week," said Mark Haber, owner of the Murray Avenue News Stand in Squirrel Hill.

He added: "I didn't get mine, either."