Moo.

I would just like to say, for the record, that I love Luke.

Luke, more affectionately known by some of us girls on the Thorn staff as Chunk (a reference to “The Goonies”), keeps all of us on the Thorn staff as sane as we can be. When I feel like ranting, cussing, throwing shit, and hitting my co-workers (particularly our very own George Dawkins. Grr), Luke is there to diffuse the situation. Folks, when it gets past 01:00 (and thus way past my bedtime), this is crucial, as I quickly alternate between hella giddy and hella bitchy the more tired I get. He patiently helps me with my sthoopid beginner’s layout questions (Adobe, feel free to kiss my ass at your earliest convenience), looks at me passively or says sympathetic things or gives me a hug when I scream foul language as I find myself with stories to edit as well as layouts to do as well as a “story” (such as it was) to write, and gets the pizza, our only “payment” for the job (other than the fun and camaraderie). He also lets himself be the butt of our endless jokes without too much protesting. I’m not quite sure if this is because he knows it’s good for morale, or because it really doesn’t bother him much. He just seems to be a fairly endless source of patience, help, encouragement, humor (not always at his expense, thank goodness), friendliness, and even authority (surprisingly, to me). There are few things better than seeing Luke snip some shit at the bud. The situation goes unbelievably quickly from Luke being quiet, calm, listening, and weighing sides to a full halt as Luke opens his mouth and calmly and quietly says his piece. Then it’s done. Said shit just stops. Makes me grin every time.

I do worry about him becoming “used up”, though. One Thursday night, we may just suddenly hit the bottom of the Luke-Coolness Barrel, and find ourselves running on a single Co-Editor-in-Chief (not that there’s anything wrong with the other CEiC, that I doubt his ability to handle the job, but he tends to not be as… there… as Luke) and bunch of separate paper section editors as Luke runs screaming in circles in the middle of our Student Union in the middle of the night. It is unlikely that we would make our 05:00 deadline (I think that’s the deadline, anyway).

I also worry that he feels underappreciated. We would have no school paper (or at least, not one at all worth reading), without Luke. And since helping putting together the paper is a major event I look forward to every week, I, at least, am highly grateful to Luke for being the glue.