Lucas Gebhart
Editor-in-Chief
Thumbs up: “Ghosts of Manila”
Just a brilliant book written by former Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram. Featuring the three-part trilogy between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, this book dives much deeper into the lives of these two fighters (especially Ali) than I ever expected. It is 232 pages of pure brilliance that shows the kinds of athletes they were, which simply doesn’t happen anymore. If you’re a sports fan, this is a must-read.
Thumbs up: ISU’s Instagram game
I don’t know who is in charge of this account, but they are doing a fantastic job. The stories are highlighting the lives on normal, everyday students, which is a cool feature that wasn’t done before. Not a ton of big corporate accounts, like ISU’s, who have thousands of followers and an uncanny following ratio, do that. I think this is a good way to represent the ISU brand. Whoever is in charge of this account needs a raise.
Thumbs up: Halloween
This is the holiday for college students. It enables creative costume ideas and that allow students to show their personality a bit while some let loose during the weekend that leads up to it. As a child, getting free candy from my rich neighbors was always a plus and seeing decked-out front yards that resemble what you would see in a graveyard allows full-grown adults to express their creativity as well.
Thumbs down: Coming up with a couple’s Halloween costume
This is an aristocracy and represents the death of man’s comedic Halloween costume ideas as girlfriends all over the country stomp out any remains of creativity. I had about 100 brilliant ideas that ranged from Man-Bear-Pig and Al Gore (from South Park) to Sexy Rick and Pickle Rick (from Rick and Morty) and all of them were shot down like a helpless civilian plane maneuvering between fighter jets. I mean, those are just golden ideas for Halloween costumes, and they were just put to bed without any regard to the brilliance and political satire that lies beneath the idea.
Thumbs down: People who think journalism is dead
It is simply not true. With the rise of new media (basically anything you read or consume online), there is more journalism out there than ever before. Some of it is better than others, and finding it can be tricky. Try Googling anything you want to know, literally anything. I guarantee one of the first 10 things that pop up will be a news article.
Thumbs down: Lauren McCluskey’s murder
The University of Utah track athlete was murdered while on the phone with her mom, who is a Washington State professor. She was killed by Melvin Shawn Rowland, who lied about his age and his past criminal history (he was a sex offender). The attack occurred on Utah’s campus in the parking lot of a residence hall. This is an awful story featuring a young woman, who reached out to campus police multiple times, and a registered sex offender on a college campus who was carrying a gun despite being a previous felon (that is against the law). This type of thing, or events similar to this that don’t always result in murder, happens far too often on college campuses.
