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THE SUMMER OF FREE SPEECH

This has truly been our summer of discontent… untill now. The brand-spankety new Summer Of Free Speech/Taters Issue is finally here to be enjoyed in all its PDF glory. It’s 5 megs of free speech lovin’ just for you! For the broadband-less, start checking the boxes around campus early next week. While you browse the issue, see if you can spot the two photoshop errors, and for bonus points, figure out which one is intentional.

As always, please enjoy the Commentator responsibly. 

  1. niedermeyer says:

    Dallas:

    There was a serious push to make you man of the year… probably would have been a more popular choice among certain alums. I agree you were not the quintessential senator, but you were one of the highest profile senators, and for reasons that I hope you might be less than completely proud of. Let’s just say you got off easy.

    Hmm… Goward good, Commentator bad? Smells like another Brown flip-flop to me. All the same, I kinda agree. Goward is a good guy, and we definately suck balls. Since you’re the expert on censoring student publications, maybe you could just do us all a favor and get us defunded. We could sure use the publicity!

    Love, Ted

  2. Dallas says:

    It wasnt the worst thing the commentators ever published…Whats with the picture of me? How come I symbolize last years senate? I was nearly always the minority opinion…an opinion that often times stood congruent with your ideals. I can take the abuse about O ‘reilly, but to make me out as the quintessential ASUO senator is downright irresponsible. Plus it was a terrible picture…Let me send you one next time. Also the whole blogging portion made me look like the anit-Goward. Im not the anti-Goward…I love Goward…Anyway you guys suck major balls, I hope someone defunds you.

  3. Michael G. says:

    Good job! Wish I hadn’t been too damn busy to put in an article. Maybe I’ll get my rasping last breath of an article in for fall term.

    My new employer is working my ass off. All the hours of a doctor at 1/3 the pay.

  4. Derek Payne says:

    In honor of this summer of free speech, I’ll exercise my right to it by saying that Tyler Grahf (Graf? Graff? Grahff? Gay?) is a faggot who needs to send me an email.

  5. Olly says:

    r u there or not, timothy xxxxxx, distinguished alumni of the highly, highly esteemed undergraduate program in eekernomics (joe stone – fred flinstone with a gold tooth – what a thmart hombre!!) .

    come out, come out wherever y ou are, timmy, u pathetic pissant u!

    What’s really impressive about this is that it comes from someone who claims that Tim is stalking her.

  6. ANDY says:

    HAHHAHAHAH IM POSTING FROM SHANGHIGH TUNNELS IM PORTLAND WITH ONE OF THOSE STATE GAMBLING BOXE SKYNET LIE BITCHES

  7. Mindi says:

    Kudos guys. It only took six years, and me finally moving out of Eugene, but hey – I made it into the Commentator! Of course, you could spell my name right… 😉

    Glad to see some things don’t change though. Keep up the good work and Ol’ Dirt hating.

  8. niedermeyer says:

    Aw deb, I don’t get a shout out? I’m crazy and macho and wingnutty… really, I am. Well, I’m a little more macho than Blaser anyway, but then we don’t really let her out of the kitchen much.

    Anyway, I hope you liked your Professor Of The Year award… I gotta say darlin’, it’s tough making fun of you. I try to rip in, but it’s so easy it just makes me sad. *sigh* Well, enjoy the last of your free publicity… we’re pretty much over you. Moving on to more relevant, less predictable pastures. But, y’know, keep it real, stay off the meds and just try to enjoy unemployment… it can be such a blessing.

    Love, Ted

  9. Andy says:

    So Deb, why are you posting from Denver, CO?

  10. T says:

    *Must ignore crazy lady*

  11. Liz says:

    What is wrong with that woman?

  12. deb says:

    oooh, we got ourselves a whole bunch of macho ducks! Nick & Dustin & Blazer and Andy and my favorite, the sicko pissant mofo name of timmy boy!

    r u there or not, timothy xxxxxx, distinguished alumni of the highly, highly esteemed undergraduate program in eekernomics (joe stone – fred flinstone with a gold tooth – what a thmart hombre!!) .

    come out, come out wherever y ou are, timmy, u pathetic pissant u!

  13. deb says:

    is that little pissant timmy boy around?

  14. Nick says:

    saffron-hued, eh? So clever!

  15. Dustin says:

    Ted you are the man…. I really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of something so brilliant. I just want to thank everybody who spent time making this happen. I’m impressed!

  16. Timothy says:

    That’s cool, perfectly solid thing to do.

  17. Tyler says:

    It was Ted’s call to nix the gender swapping. I respect the decision,
    as it was a conscious one.

  18. Timothy says:

    Oh, one other thing, you do know that traditionally Man/Woman of the year are gender-swapped, right? Totally inconsequential, but I just thought I’d mention it.

    But the changes you’ve made are substantial improvements, good show.

  19. Blaser says:

    All –

    Thanks for the praise, and the hate! Such emotional responses clearly show how much y’all care, and they help Ted and I make changes for the better, so keep up the dialogue and send any suggestions to ocomment.

    I’ve made quite a few changes this morning, so feel free to take another look if you like, but in summary:

    1. Congrats Tyler — you have been added to the “editors emeriti”, and we added Dustin as well to contribs.
    2. We’re down to one hippie font — and you can actually read it. Hooray! Tim, I also noticed that in some places there are way too many fonts used, and I made some changes. Also, I think you’ll like the secret message.
    3. Melissa — sorry to offend. Hell, some of us don’t even know you, and shouldn’t have made a joke like that without knowing how you would take it. I changed the byline — just please remember that it was a joke in bad taste, and we joke because we care. And we have terrible taste.
    4. I know, it’s amazing, but I actually spell checked the damn thing.

    More changes are in the works — Bryan is working his magic this weekend, and we will be sending her off to the printer on monday.

    Thanks again, and keep picking her apart!

  20. Andy says:

    without teh crahzy we can’t have teh funnie

  21. Melissa says:

    I don’t hate Tyler. And the “opinionated” slash was uncalled for. Seriously, feel free to use what I wrote, but don’t take cheap shots.

  22. Tyler says:

    I just took a look at the issue. I’d seen it before, obviously, but not in its final state. Anyhow, it looks great … really, really great; however, you might want to consider giving people by-lines (I don’t count the “tombstones” at the end of pieces to be by-lines). This ain’t the Economist. And, what, I don’t get space on the masthead? I know I’m leaving the OC after this issue, and I know my stuff came in late, but ouch — I did write quite a bit of the content, old and new, including two anon pieces. And shouldn’t Dustin Stockton get a place on the masthead? I’m just sayin’, people like to see their names in print.

    In short: Awesome issue & there’s a “c” in “acquit”.

  23. Tyler says:

    There are almost always a couple of errors like that prior to printing. It’s, like, the curse of the OC.

  24. Laura says:

    There are at least a couple of apostrophe errors. Consider proof-reading again before sending it to the printer.

  25. Andy says:

    I give the issue a
    (which comes out to be an 86 out 100 pts)

  26. Timothy says:

    Ted: Well, it’s good to experiment, and I think you’ve got some solid ideas. There were just a few things that were a little jarring to the eyes. I do like the page numbers, I don’t like how many fonts there are. But in all seriousness it’s one of the better debut issues I’ve seen, and I think you can feel good about that. My first issue was total crap, hell, my second issue was total crap too, so I think you’re on pretty solid ground, I just wanted to point out where I think there’s room for improvement.

    Tyler: You get a 509709405809485.1

  27. Tyler says:

    I give it a 1,029,001.9986 on my arbitrary scale between 1,004.966 and 2,004,999.3.

    I hope that was helpful!

  28. Niedermeyer says:

    We were conciously trying to experiment a bit with this issue. There are certainly some things that turned out better than others, as is the case with most experimental efforts. Our style will continue to evolve, with the goal in mind of becoming more refined. All of our efforts, be they in layout, graphics, advertising, marketing, whatever are guided by the idea that the Commentator brand has an appeal that has traditionally been somewhat underexploited. We want to continue to bring the classic humor and analysis, but in a more accessable, entertaining format.

    On the font issue, a smaller size is pretty much inevitable for subsequent issues, as they will be designed around longer pieces of content.

    Finally, I hope people enjoy the issue as much as I do, and it inspires them to continue reading us this year. Hell, maybe a few will even start obsessively reading back issues like I did after Ians “Comics Kill” and want to get involved. It’s a fantastic publication, and I am extremely proud to be a part of it.

    Viva Sudsy!

  29. Ian says:

    Having looked more, it

  30. Timothy says:

    Having looked more, it’s 11pt. At least, that’s what word says it is if you paste it in. And Book Antiqua? I mean, it’s an okay font, but Times New Roman or Georgia are our standard bodycopy fonts. 10, never larger than 10.

    I think there are probably too many fonts, also, on further inspection, which downgrades the score to 7. Don’t feel too bad about that, though, if you look at my second issue it’s a damn font salad. Same with my BTTB. I’d suggest you pick no more than six fonts you really, truly love and use them. One of these will be Georgia, because that’s what the flag is in (I think, it’s on one of the OC computers someplace). You should have a nice Sans for headlines, one for the TOC and ads, and at most two more. Including subheads, bylines, page numbers, captions, etc. For big blow-out issues like this it’s less bad to use too many, but you still want to use as few as possible, it’s less jarring to the eye.

    I think the issue is solid on layout ideas, but for an every issue thing it’d be too busy. I like that there’s more color, that’s a plus, and the cover is excellent, but I think there are too many fonts.

  31. Blaser says:

    It’s not 12 pt font. I hope I made your day!

    Thanks for the suggestions Tim — it’s a pretty large order to overhaul the style for a 48 page double issue your first time out of the gate, and not everything gets caught or changed.

    As much as I hate to say it to everyone else, please pick it apart — we are going to have it up for a few days before we send it off to the printer, so some changes can still be made. If there is any glaring errors, please let us know @ocomment.

    Be kind on the newbies, please!

  32. Timothy says:

    In more detail:

    1) The issue largely looks pretty good.

    2) I think the font size is too big and where the hell is the secret message? The Secret Message is unto us like the thin, flavorless wafers are unto the papists: Holy, and not to be fucked around with. It actually turns into Jesus when it’s printed, that’s how important it is.

    3) I’m digging the new page numbers.

    4) The indents on new paragraphs are too deep, they should be .25″ at the most, it looks like somebody just hit “tab” in word and pasted the text in.

    OVERALL: I give it a 7.65 on a completely arbitrary scale for the look. The scale goes to 10. For a first issue, that’s a damn good score. For first-issues a 7.65 is near to the top in terms of look. I think with a few very minor changes (put back the secret message, shrink the font back down to 10 [Book Antiqua? WTF?], and reset the tabs to .25″ instead of what appears to be .5″) and that issue gets up there into the 9+ range, near the top of issues for look. Good show. I’ll update you on the content when I get a chance to read it.

  33. Timothy says:

    Is that 12pt font? Please for the love of everything good in this world tell me that isn’t 12pt font.

  34. Andy says:

    Good job too Girl!

  35. Andy says:

    Good Job man!

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