If previous weeks were characterized by a surfeit of communication, Charlie and Maddie’s fourth issue of The Mirror was marked by a startling lack of any intra-Mirror editor discussion at all.
Did the duo convene midweek to assess the state of the magazine? Nah.
Did they see each other at Green Key? Probably. They think so. Or maybe not.
Did Charlie say hi to Maddie at the gym? No. Charlie doesn’t go to the gym. (Cue reference to flabby dadbod.)
But if he did, he still would have ignored her.
So how did The Mirror work this week?
Have the two overcome their irreconcilable differences, which largely stem from Maddie’s unhealthy obsession with Taylor Swift and Charlie’s unhealthy obsession with himself? Has this pair of editors decided to work together to form something more beautiful than each could imagine by themselves?
Will they ever stop using rhetorical questions as a cheap device to get the reader to continue to digest this schlock? Is it possible to pen an Editor’s Note wherein more than half the sentences are questions?
Do you think these editors will answer these questions and reveal the inner workings of The Mirror — thereby rendering themselves obsolete? If there’s one value Charlie and Maddie do share, it’s the importance of jealously guarding their power. Exposing the machinations of The Mirror would shatter their grip on this magazine.
Charlie and Maddie may be petty, but the writers are not. In this issue, they’ve explored how campus works — including features on how friendships form, how professors are hired and how sororities have localized in the past.
