Inaugural Editorial
Recycling Vegetables: Here We Go Again
In jedem Anfang liegt die Ewigkeit
Once upon a time there was The Broccoli, an MCFA publication with an irreverent, if often sophomoronic, wit and a keen desire to plant its size twelve runners into tempting lard-ass targets (steatopygia administrata). Like all of us, it was born, flourished, and died. And, as we all hope to be, in some quarters it is sorely missed.
The editors of that enterprise have gone onto other things. Bill Juby has turned fifty and, for reasons known only to him and his psychotherapist, has decided to enrol in that boot camp of academic conformity, the PhD program. John Lepage has signed onto middle management, ascended to the lofty position of dean, partitioned himself off with a glass wall from his former comrades, and thus made his posteriors a suitable target for the proletarian boot every time he undresses with the lights on..
For the past year or so, there has been talk of bringing back The Broccoli. That desire may be a response to the sense of a growing iron cage bureaucracy descending more and more upon our newly accredited institution. Where has it gone, the glory and the dream? Or at least where is the occasional Bronx cheer? So there may be a point to launching an enterprise committed to something other than solemn academic platitudes covering fiercely contested turf wars.
True, The Broccoli was often irritating and careless about the facts. It did inspire on at least one occasion some talk of legal action. And at times it served as a forum for internecine cheap shots among faculty. But if unsubstantiated gossip and well-embellished rumours laced with vitriol are not to be allowed on campus, what are we college types supposed to talk about? Didn't we go to school for all those years in order to gain the right to all the privileges of the Common Room?
And so, in the spirit of that earlier noble publication, we launch the E-Coli. We hope to retain the best spirit of mockery from The Broccoli and yet carve out a slightly different niche. What that will be who knows? What this e-zine becomes will be determined by the response of those who wish to contribute. We can be sure there is no shortage of spotty buttocks in need of several swift kicks, but whether enough of us have the energy needed for the task remains to be seen.
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? Well, we give it our best shot..
PF2
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