What follows is a faithful account of the production of Issue 4 (taking place the evening of Feb. 19/early morning of Feb. 20) as witnessed by me, The Pioneer’s Editor-in-Chief.
4:08 p.m.: I’m in! Here’s to another long night of antics and not working on my politics thesis. Though, I’m bummed that I’m going to miss the ASWC Power and Privilege Symposium‘s keynote speaker, Tricia Rose.
4:20 p.m.: Managing Editor Pam London and News Editor Sarah Cornett talk about how other News Editor Dylan Tull likes to drive from his fraternity house Beta Theta Pi to Reid Campus Center (where the Pio newsroom is located in). For context, its roughly a 10 minute walk.
4:37 p.m.: Opinion Editor Kyle Seasly is currently ill with an unknown sickness. He states, “I’ve been touching a lot of people.”
4:38 p.m.: Kyle says he’s been feeling tired and forgetful because of his illness. Production Manager Sean McNulty replies, “That’s terrible. It’s like you’re an old person.”
4:39 p.m.: Sean notes that he doesn’t have a drivers license. Sarah is shocked.
4:43 p.m.: I ask Dylan if I can borrow his car tonight. I offer to buy him a dinner while I’m at Olive and he says that he’d rather have a free snack. Who turns down free dinner from Olive?
4:53 p.m.: Production Assistant and Web-Content Editor Jess Faunt arrives! We realize that when she posts to our Twitter account, she sometimes forgets to add the link to it. She’s incredibly embarrassed.
4:55 p.m.: Kyle takes a survey of the room to ask who reads magazines while on the toilet. My response: “…..”
5:00 p.m.: Pam tells me to write “Live blog: Jess is not at the ‘hangry’ (hungry/angry) stage yet.”
5:04 p.m.: Sean mutters to himself: “What Missy Elliot album do you all want to listen to?” My thought: “None….?”
5:12 p.m.: We realize that Kyle hasn’t come up with a column title for his column in the Opinion section. My suggestion: “The Ambiguous Something.” Hey, I’m trying to give him as much flexibility as possible.
5:14 p.m.: Kyle’s next suggestion is “Dancing Lessons” followed with “Best Facial Hair on This Page.” I don’t think either of those are going to work.
5:15 p.m.: I yell out that I think Jess is starting to get hangry. Jess replies “Are you saying that I’m getting hangry?! I’M NOT GETTING HANGRY!”
5:30 p.m.: I (Pam) am taking over.
5:37 p.m.: Sports PA Marianne tries to figure out the latest pun and/or alliteration to use in a headline.
5:42 p.m.: The theme of this week’s snacks is…ORANGE! Provided by Illustration Editor Luke.
5:53 p.m.: Kyle claims that he and Dylan are in charge of the paper while Sean and Shelly are out. Hmm…something about that doesn’t sit right with me. The Managing Editor. Aka Queen of Production Night.
6:00 p.m.: The theme of production tonight…Learning New words! For example, “enervate” and “folderol.”
6:31 p.m.: Apparently Sean’s and Sarah’s parents partied way too much in college…or went to party schools…something like that.
6:33 p.m.: Dylan: “Kyle can you toss me a carrot?” He probably should have specified that he wasn’t referring to the carrot Kyle just took a bite out of.
6:48 p.m.: Remember that time Shelly told us she occasionally craves eating baking soda and dirt?
7:06 p.m.: Fun fact, Sean was EIC of his high school paper!
7:17 p.m.: I’m (Shelly) back! Yay! Dylan’s car is back in one piece, minus a couple of scratches… kidding.
7:19 p.m.: I email Dylan to ask him when would work best for him to do an editorial workshop. His response: “Doesn’t matter. Literally any day.” It’s apparent that Dylan’s done with his English exams and orals.
8:15 p.m.: Illustrator Julie visits! And proceeds to go on a rant about the Breakfast Club and how she doesn’t like it. According to her she is over angsty teenage girl movies.
8:38 p.m.: Dylan will henceforth be known as “Falafel King.”
9:34 p.m.: BREAKING: Shelly just used the phrase “on the reg.” What is the world coming to?
9:45 p.m.: Pam teaches me (Shelly) about how to play Pokémon. Pam says she cried to her mom because she couldn’t beat a “gym leader” in the game. Sarah says she had light-up Pokémon shoes. I’m confused about how there’s no end-goal in the game.
9:54 p.m.: Chief Copy Editor Karah Kemmerly says that I’m acting abnormally sassy tonight. I don’t think I’m that sassy, but then again someone called me “Spicy Sassy Shelly” during my first year at Whitman.
9:56 p.m.: Karah points out that I’m blatantly ignoring grammar rules in this live blog. But hey, what’s life without breaking a couple of rules?
10:06 p.m.: Pam announces that she had two primary forms of entertainment at recess in elementary schools: The bars where she did somersaults, flips and hung upside down, the second was double-dutch and she apparently was really good at it. Sean says, “I mostly just drew circles in the sandbox by myself and made spaceship sounds.” Awww.
10:07 p.m.: Sean announces to the newsroom: “We’ll finish this huge bag of carrots yet… and by we I mean me.”
12:41 p.m.: We’re done! Technically we were done at about 12:20 p.m. but I forgot to sign out earlier. Sweet dreams tonight!
