Things People Say
Let's say a girl really likes going out to the bar and getting blitzed. When getting blitzed at the bar, she likes to make out with, well, just about everybody. Nothing beyond making out, but a whole hell of a lot of spit swapping. Some jerk who knows the girl decides to label her a slut. The girl has never called herself a slut. Is she a slut? Certainly not, yet someone has said that about her. Now let's say a girl puts out an album that sells like hot cakes. While promoting this album, the girl wears weird clothes and skateboards. Some jerk who has seen these images decides that she thinks she is a punk. This girl never called herself a punk. Is she a punk? Certainly not, yet because someone said that about her, many people assume it is true. If we assume the girl who sez she is not a punk is a punk, must we not also assume the girl who sez she is not a slut is a slut? (I do not mean to insult anyone, I'm just conducting an exercise in logical reasoning.)

MTV stooge, "You're too punk rock for that."
Avril Lavigne, "I'm not punk rock."

Honey
By nature, I'm a monster. In the first era of The Newsletter, as deadlines loomed and apathy reigned, my manner was often unfortunately heavyhanded. (But I tell you, trying to wring a column out of Alber is maddening, I don't care who you are.) I believe that my conduct may have in some small way contributed to the demise of The Newsletter halfway through Vol. IV; it was my efforts alone that were propping it up, but I also did nothing to encourage others to help shoulder the load. But, I do not possess the ability to travel through time; so, what's done is done. What I can do is what I have been doing, in the second life of The Newsletter I have tried to take as much pressure off the columnists and contributors as possible. Deadlines are still strictly enforced, but meeting them is less compulsary; I used to nag and nag to get a column from almost everyone, now I tell the boys to submit something if they have something they want to write about, but not to force themselves.

Tied in with this is the word limit and page limit. Strict (and by "strict" I mean 807 is fine, 842 needs to be trimmed) enforcement of the word limit helps in mocking up each issue. I know how much space an 800-word column takes up, including picture(s). Knowing that, and knowing that I have only four pages to fill, helps me more accurately assess where each issue is as it comes togather, how short we are (necessitating more pictures or supplemental material like "Breaking Legs") or if I need to bump someone to the next issue. With the four-page limit written in stone, I alwys know how much material will be needed for each issue, and it also affords me the luxury only publishing the best. Like Steeze's "excellent" guest column, "The Avid Fan." Because of proper space budgeting, I was able to thank him for all his hard work by putting it on the front page, rather than burying in on page 5 of a six-page issue 2. Six pages is the sirens' song.

So, with less pressure on me (both because I have decided that I can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and because there is not the stress of more than four pages), I am - or at least I think I am - steering the ship with a much lighter touch. Sometimes this leads to a drop off in production (I think Neutral Man might be dead), but on the whole I think it has made everyone more eager to contribute, more eager to help this incarnation of The Newsletter not just endure, but thrive. Everything's going gangbusters. Let the hubris begin!

Crap
Radiohead

H-A-D
Don't have a day.