"Mark's Remarks"

Below are links to some articles I wrote for my high school newspaper. As I read them now, I am alternately amused and taken aback by the partially-informed opinions and stilted style in which they were expressed. (I feel I'm regressing to that style even now).  I called a Neil Simon play "fairly well-written"! HA! And I labored under the assumption that Kerry Livgren played keyboards and not guitar for Kansas (hey, they didn't include credits on 8-tracks).

Here's one I didn't write.

I remember how, when that paper containing my first column was delivered in class, I was mortified to see how the typesetter had mangled my prose with the most egregious typos and misspellings which, I'd like to emphasize, were not my fault ("Clever, Hugh?"). I didn't write most of the headlines, either.  I think that duty fell to our faculty adviser, Dr. Clark Chism, who did this kind of thing for a living, and taught English and Journalism on the side.  Or vice-versa, it was hard to tell.

But I'm also pretty happy with some of the stuff.  I was named Features Editor after my predecessor was caught using his press privileges to leave campus for non-legitimate purposes.  I even won 2nd place in a state competition (that I don't recall entering). But because I rode the bus through senior year (one of many things I had in common with Napoleon Dynamite) and couldn't stay after school to work on the paper, I was an editor in title only (a masthead figurehead!). I did eventually start checking the copy after the girl typed up my articles and before they were sent to the printer. Live and learn.

If you read these, please make sure you also read some of my later work, and realize, as I have, that we all start somewhere, but usually we go on to bigger and better things!

"Mark's Remarks" April 15, 1981 debut column; album review

"Mark's Remarks" May 19, 1981 "Little Me" drama review

"Mark's Remarks" Sept. 30, 1981 Kerry Livgren "Seeds of Change" review

"Mark's Remarks" Nov. 25, 1981 Ranstrassy show choir review

"Mark's Remarks" Jan. 29, 1982 "Life on a G-string" personality profile

"Mark's Remarks" April 30, 1982 "Are You a Video Junkie?" self-help quiz parody