With spring in swing, we say farewell

3/13/08 7:00pm

The Thresher office is a little bit different come this year's Beer-Bike weekend. It's a little bit quieter, a little more focused and has a little less Hall & Oates blaring from computer speakers. That is because it's changeover week at the Thresher, and as our seniors depart and leave the rest of us legally culpable for everything we print, we must thank them for all of their contributions, past and present.Julia Bursten served as editor in chief for the first part of the year, until she was kidnapped by Descartes' evil demon and dragged away into a philosophy paper. We were sad to see her leave because she was an efficient and encouraging editor whose epic bouts with a certain backpage editor made the office a great place to work.

Dan Derozier served as our cartoonist for two years, and his enlightened cynicism was always a welcome addition to our editorial page. Whenever we were struggling for an opinion to write, Dan gave us one. It may have been a bit too frank to print, but it was poignant and insightful, and it was a big reason we were able to get our staff editorials done week after week.

Taylor Johnson, our photo editor, never found it too much of a burden to shoot photos of 2 a.m. jacks or 8 a.m. speeches. His photography skills kept our paper from attacking readers with words, and his lightheartedness kept our editors from attacking each other with knives once the 3 a.m. mark rolled around.

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Nikki Metzgar was Arts and Entertainment editor, and a recent addition to the staff. She kept us loose with her frequent smiles and friendliness, and her persistence in the fight against scary InDesign demons gave us all courage of our own.

Evan Mintz needs no introduction, thanks simply to the fact that he has had to appear at more mandatory public apology sessions than anyone else in staff history. But nonetheless, as executive editor, opinions editor and backpage editor, he was indispensable in crafting our identity as a paper, and his printed words ensured that we never had a lack of reader response.

Ryan Stickney, our extremely late-night copy editor, was a perfectionist in the very best ways. When our eyes started going out, she gave us new ones, and kept us from making all the grammatical and factual errors we otherwise would have made in our half-awake states.

And finally, Stephen Whitfield served as editor in chief for the last half of the year, after a stint as managing editor. He also served as sports editor for the better part of his Rice career. Along with his fearless leadership, he gave the office a sense of culture, since he was a walking encyclopedia of American history, obscure game show moments and 60s-era music that somehow seemed relevant to every conversation.

We thank these seniors heartily for everything, and we wish them the best of luck in the future. And if they ever want to come back and help out on Wednesday nights, we will most certainly have them back: The office will be open for business, just like always.

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