Carlos Maycotte, so you enjoy Risk a little too much and your friend forgot his wallet on the worst possible day (“Rolling the dice with a quick game of Risk,” Nov. 7, p. 3). Why do I care? Why does the rest of this school care? And most of all why did you have to waste our time with this column?
As I began to read I assumed it was some sort of metaphor leading into a larger theme or topic for discussion — like your previous columns on an advocacy of nap time, a discussion of a fictional wizard’s sexual orientation and the latest uncomfortable friend request, maybe from your girlfriend’s mother this time. But no, encountering something worth reading was, for yet another week, too much to hope for in your column. You really were giving us a play-by-play of the game Risk, vaguely relating it to your friend and a road trip you took and closing with a statement on how boring the game turns in the end.
You have the opportunity of having the attention, for a few minutes, of a significant number Boston University community members every week. Do something with it. Take a stance. Advise us. Give your opinion. Make us laugh. Tell us where to eat and which movie to watch. Inspire us to vote for someone. Just please don’t inspire me to write this letter. Don’t ruin my breakfast reading and don’t make me wish I had begun playing Sudoku a few minutes earlier.
This is the FreeP, not the New York Times, I get it; standards are more lax and license is ample. But put enough thought and effort into your column such that I’m not angry at myself for thinking you might have written something worthwhile this week. Please begin to show some respect for both yourself as a contributor to the paper and the BU community that has no choice but to put up with your incompetence. I know this is “only a collegiate newspaper” but try a little harder to achieve some sort of journalistic or editorial aptitude.
You ended this particular column with the sentence “Eventually we’ll all go drink and dread the next day, because, honestly, Professor Plum is too obvious an answer.” The paper only has eight pages to work with so don’t waste your little section on such rubbish as you have so far. If not, eventually, we’ll all go drink our coffee and dread the next installment of your column or actually skip it altogether. Because, honestly, your column has been as interesting as a cigarette butt.
Hugo Juarez Michel
CAS ’09