The Man Who Was Thursday: Inaugural Column

Hello out there in Internetland. This is the very first installment of my new weekly blog column, titled “The Man Who Was Thursday. ” That title (for which I must thank the incomparable Justin Crowder) comes from the title of a novel by G.K. Chesterton, although the only real connection between the book and the column is the fact that this column will be posted every Thursday. I intend for this column to cover, well… just about anything which can be succinctly discussed in ~300-500 words. Of course, all of my commentary will come from a conservative standpoint, although I will certainly not simply write about politics. Thankfully, we live in a free society in which the government is relegated to its own sphere, leaving room for one to ponder issues beyond the increasingly onerous ineptitude of our elected politicians.

I suppose some sort of short biographical introduction is in order. I am one of the Editors of the esteemed Carolina Review. An ex-communist, I am now something of a libertarian conservative (I’m sure I’ll narrate my conversion at some point). I am a big fan of William F. Buckley, Kierkegaard, G.K. Chesterton (of course), and the Austrian School of Economics. As I’m sure my political, philosophical, and aesthetic tastes will become apparent in coming weeks, I’ll stop there.

I would like to devote the remainder of my space to announcing the creation of the Arielle Reid Award. This award is designed to honor a member of the Carolina community who, against his or her own best intentions, accidentally provides a boon for the Carolina Review. Of course, it is named after Ms. Reid in honor of her Letter-to-the-Editor of the Daily Tar Heel (DTH letter to the editor “Carolina Review’s February issue is offensive garbage,” March 16), which set off a whirlwind of controversy, prompted a set of rebuttals, rebuttals to those rebuttals, and rebuttals to the rebuttals to those rebuttals, and will surely increase the readership of our next issue. As of now, Arielle is the front-runner for this year’s award, but by no means has she already won. There is still plenty of time for someone to burn Bryan and me in effigy or to start a movement to ban the Review from campus and steal the coveted prize away from Ms. Reid. The winner of the Arielle Reid award will be announced on the last day of class.