To the Editor:
I must applaud the College Committee on Student Organizations in its valiant effort to protect the delicate sensibilities of the student body. After all, these are our formative years. (That was sarcasm; I apologize for not warning the reader. More sarcasm will follow.)
The last time I picked up a Jack O'Lantern, I did so with the mistaken assumption that it was a scholarly journal of peer-reviewed articles. Imagine my surprise! The adventures of the dead baby haunted me for weeks before a friend pointed out that dead babies do not, in fact, have adventures, and that the piece was probably intended as humor. Had there been an adult warning label on the cover, this may not have happened.
I suggest a sort of abstract system for articles in all student publications, so that no one is ever shocked by what they read. One might read, "Annoying article in which the author will try to prove he is smarter than you." As far as by-lines are concerned, however, I must agree with Dan Powell's remark that they are problematic, if not irrelevant: by this point I can pick out, and avert my eyes from, Abiola Lapite's and Kenji Hosokawa's columns with ease. (Does thinly-veiled mockery require a disclaimer?)
