Codell Rodriguez
Daily Egyptian
Well, this is the last Pulse of the summer, and I'm graduating after almost three years at the Daily Egyptian, so I guess this is my farewell column. I know I'm supposed to do something about entertainment, but screw that. I'm the entertainment editor, and if you don't like it you can send a buttload of e-mail to my Daily Egyptian address that will be nonexistent in less than a week. Watch how fast I respond.
Sorry, I'm not trying to make enemies. I really did enjoy my time heading up the Pulse. I just wish I did more here. I wish I could say I've done more here at the Daily Egyptian and in Carbondale in general. I wish I could talk about the time I wrote the story that saved 22,000 Carbondalians from certain death at the hands of an evil mad scientist. I wish I could tell you about the time I pushed a 7-year-old out of the path of a bus. I wish I could tell you about the time I built a time machine and saved the lives of John Lennon and Bruce Lee (screw Kennedy).
But I can't. I can tell you about the time I got story of the week for a story I did on the Taco Bell in the Student Center being one of the best in the nation. Yeah, you heard me, the Taco Bell in the Student Center. Or I could tell you about the time I found a copy of "Seven Samurai" on DVD at Plaza Records. Or would you like to hear about how I saw "Star Wars: Episode II" four times and was disappointed that I didn't dedicate enough of my time to it?
Quite frankly, I don't think you want to hear about that. Quite frankly, I don't want to hear about it. Overall, I think I've left quite a mediocre impression on this newspaper and a nonexistent one on this town and this University. But before you cry me a river, I still look back at this as one of the best times of my life. Maybe you should cry a river about that.
This is about the time most farewell columns talk about how some 12-year-old kid with a terminal illness gave the writer the will to live and convinced him to dedicate his life to being a good soldier journalist. Quite frankly, I'm not and probably will never be the kind of journalist who strives to uncover conspiracies or expose the shop owners who abuse all their Aloe Vera plants.
Instead, I'm going to write a story about the death of bubblegum pop or a feature about the guy who paints dogs a different color for all those people who wish they had a black Lab instead of a Golden Retriever. Don't get me wrong. Hard news is important, and the public needs to know. But without features and entertainment to lighten things up, we'd all go insane.
But while I'm talking about news, I'd like to give the AP Stylebook a big "Screw you." The Associated Press Stylebook is what we journalists are supposed to live by. It has all the punctuation rules and all the proper meanings of words. Don't get me wrong, the thing's a lifesaver at times. But no matter what anyone says, a kid can be a human child. I don't think you (the readers) see kid and think, "Why the hell are they talking about goats in this kids academy story?" I think sometimes newspapers care more about catering to journalists than the readers. In that regard, I couldn't give a frick. As long as the story informs or entertains the reader, that's all the matters.
OK, now that I've vented about the industry, I suppose I should thank some people. I would like to thank the past and present staff of the Daily Egyptian for tolerating my strange sense of humor and tomfooleries. While I may not have been the most social kid at the party, I am glad that I got the chance to know each of you.
I would like to thank the faculty here at SIUC. I would especially like to thank Mike Magnuson for providing one of the most entertaining classes (even if I did get a freakin' C. I know, my fault), Brady Udall, for giving me a good excuse to read "The World According to Garp" and Bill Recktenwald for some of the craziest stories any journalist could tell.
I want to thank Subway for providing me with nutritious food when I was too lazy to make it myself (which was every day). I would also like to thank the girl with the frosty blue hair (sorry, I didn't catch your name) for offering feedback to my t-shirts, columns and not-so-great stories.
I thank the sources that helped me out during my three years here, especially Carla Coppi and Beth Mochnick from International Students and Scholars and T.J. Rutherford, director of the Student Center. I give a special thanks to Jin Yang who helped me with one of the coolest stories I've ever worked on.
Finally, I want to thank the readers who read my stories after they were only 12 minutes into class, had already finished the word jumble, read the cartoons twice and accidentally turned to page 6. Thanks kids.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you fake.
Codell Rodriguez can be reached at crodriguez@dailyegyptian.com.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
