Letter to the editor, from the editors
Please reference Vitamin C for additional ambiance: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDM3eYp4KQ]
Sometimes you start a blog your freshman year just for the hell of it. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, that blog grows in to one of the most important facets of your life, picking up over 50 additional writers along the way and garnering thousands of readers who, for some godforsaken reason, seem to enjoy our heinous publication.
Three years ago, I started Sherman Ave with the idea of making a site devoted to the culture of Evanston and Chicago. Peter Stein and Sir Edward Twattingworth III came along not much later, and took things to a whole new level. The next year brought a new generation of Aviators, including Chandler Dutton, who immediately became one of the site’s most important writers, editors, and leaders.
For the past three years, we have spent the better part of our lives dedicated to working on and building up a website that has brought about so many of our fondest memories and led us to some of our best friendships. It’s been incredible to create a lasting publication at the institution we love--Northwestern--that has an important role in the lives of our readers both at NU and beyond. We and all the writers and editors at Sherman Ave have strived to create something clever yet approachable, a collection of articles that speak truth to the experiences of our lives through humor and remind ourselves and others that, sometimes, you just need to laugh at life. We even got some beer money out of it.
We also came to realize two things. The first is that, sooner or later, we’re going to graduate. And we don’t want to be that 27-year-old who’s still submitting articles about the Keg to a college blog. But the second is that we love what we do, and think we do what we do at least kind of well, and want to keep writing for a publication like Sherman Ave.
So Peter, Chandler, and I decided to found National Ave.[1] Think of it as Sherman Ave’s less-college oriented, less-heinous sister publication. Every post on National Ave is going to be an entertaining read; whether it’s funny or serious, satire or long-form, we want all of our articles to be interesting and relevant to our audience, which is exactly the same standard we have held to Sherman Ave. We’re going to write about everything--sports, politics, music, TV, movies, which two historical leaders would make the world’s most formidable foosball team--and hopefully bring some joy and perspective to whoever the hell our readers will be. We’re going to engage with the culture we inhabit, and we’re going to livetweet the shit out of it.
While the three of us may be leaving our executive roles on Sherman Ave, we know that Northwestern’s most-read publication is in good hands. Prince Giblets is a phenomenal writer, thinker, and creative idea generator who we’ve had the good fortune of working with as Sherman Ave’s campus editor, and he’s going to take over as Editor-in-Chief and lead the site to unprecedented heights and Smirnoff Ice consumption. And all that wouldn’t be possible without the incredible crop of talent contained within Sherman Ave’s collection of writers, a group of individuals who never cease to amaze us with their wit and complete disregard for morality. We can’t thank all our writers by name, or even pseudonym, but each and every one of those heinouses contributed to making Sherman Ave what it is today.
Sherman Ave will continue to retain its place and continue to grow in influence and importance for years to come, in part because of the tremendous array of diverse talent it attracts, in part because of the ethos of creativity and intellectualism fostered on campus here at Northwestern, and in part because the need will always exist for a site like Sherman Ave. And we’re excited to watch it grow thanks to the new generation of Sherman Ave.
Sincerely,
Stephen Rees (a.k.a. Evander Jones), Peter Stein (a.k.a. Ross Packingham), and Chandler Dutton (a.k.a. Manua Hiki-Hiki)
[1] Whether or not this decision occurred over warm Old Style and arcade-style basketball at 1am on a Friday morning is largely irrelevant.
