The Editors Blog

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THE EDITORS BLOG

Introducing...

THE EDITORS BLOG (http://the-editors.blogspot.com)

The thoughts of three generations of Chicago Maroon Viewpoints Editors:

George L. Anesi ('03-'05), Andrew Hammond ('05-'06), and Alec Brandon ('06-present) represent three generations of Chicago Maroon Viewpoints Editors. The Chicago Maroon has been the independent student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892.


The Viewpoints Section of the Chicago Maroon serves as a medium for debating issues relevant to the University of Chicago, the greater academic community, and everything beyond. This blog serves as an extension of both the Viewpoints Section itself and its aims.

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George L. Anesi is a fourth-year in the College and will be graduating with honors from the University of Chicago with a B.S. in biological chemistry and a B.A. in chemistry. While at the University of Chicago, George served as Editor in Chief of the Chicago Maroon and Acting President of Chicago Friends of Israel. He will be taking one year off before medical school to volunteer in medical clinics abroad.

Andrew Hammond is a third-year in the College pursuing a degree in political science with particular interest in American politics. Andrew is a 2006 Truman Scholar and Executive Director of the ACLUofC. He has worked on the political campaigns of Barak Obama and Forrest Claypool, and will be working at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law this summer.

Alec Brandon is a second-year in the College pursuing a degree in economics with a particular interest in applied microeconomics. Alec is the current Viewpoints Editor of the Chicago Maroon and Secretary of the Chicago Debate Society. He has worked for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, and will be researching the economics of higher education at Yale Law School this summer with Henry Hansmann. He has been blogging since the beginning of 2005 at his now-defunct personal blog Mr. Alec.

Signing off

So this should have been obvious for awhile but Mr. Alec is going be signing off of the blogosphere. That doesn’t mean that I will no longer be blogging, just not at Mr. Alec, and no longer as Mr. Alec.

So the new blog is going to be a group blog of three Viewpoints editors of the Chicago Maroon. My co-bloggers are some of the smartest people I have met and best of all; all told we offer a really interesting range of opinions. I'm not going to try to pigeonhole their economic, social, and political viewpoints, but just trust me on this point.

I'm expecting it to be really nice to have co-bloggers (it definitely already has). It will give me more ideas of things to blog about (you only have to visit Volokh Conspiracy or The Plank to see how co-bloggers work off of one another) and it will give me cover for my infamous periods of blogging silence (which are then typically followed by periods of blogging ridiculousness).

But most significantly this new blogging opportunity gave me a chance to start anew. The new layout is simply divine (huge thanks to George on that one) and I hope it will generate more and more visitors as we keep posting our thoughts.

Of course starting anew comes at the cost of giving up this blog and I have loved my time blogging here. There were definitely times that I would think, “what the hell are you doing pouring hours of your time into this blog,” but it has been a really rewarding experience. Before this I had always had opinions, but had never expressed them as my own, only as opinions that could trump other opinions. The blog was a launching board to my work at the Maroon and potentially to bigger and sexier things.

I expect to be linking to this blog quite frequently over at The Editors, but that should be the extent of the activity here.

It was an awesome run while it lasted and I hope it was enjoyed by all.

Sincerely,

Mr. Alec