The Retort

Letter From the Editor

February 19th, 2010 by Bailey Martin Of The Retort Staff

Since many of you may not know what the Retort is supposed to be.

Retort

Pronunciation: \ri-tȯrt\

Function: verb

Transitive verb

1: to pay or hurl back : return <retort an insult>

2a: to answer (as an argument) by a counter argument

2b: to say in reply

Intransitive verb

1: to answer back usually sharply

2: to return an argument or charge

3: retaliate Our Retort is supposed to be a combination of transitive verb 2a, 2b, and intransitive verb 2. I hoping that we are living up to that or at least that we will start living up to that. Hopefully we improve and grow - it is (supposedly) springtime after all, the season of growth.

This issue of The Retort had more content than any of our previous issues since January 2009. For the first time, we had to decide what acceptable content we could publish or not publish. There were a lot of hard decisions, but hopefully most of our cut content will be published in our March issue. So I am sorry if we were unable to publish your work, hopefully next time we will be able to.

Thank you especially to Jennifer, who had to edit more content than usual, and Leah, who had to layout more content than ever. Also, I would like to thank everyone who is not part of our paid staff and has submitted work in this issue. As always we happily accept Letters To The Editor and any other articles or creative writing that you would like to submit.

Do not forget about our annual creative writing contest (see our ad on page 24), all entries are due on March 16 at 5pm. Thank you to everyone who has already submitted entries. Also, remember that Sigma Tau Delta is holding their annual poetry contest soon (see details on page 10).

After various interviews with applicants for our News Editor position, I still remain undecided about who will fill the position. So we are still accepting applications if anyone would like to apply.

Well, The Retort is still going strong and hopefully it will continue that way for a long time. Also do not forget to fill out our website (www.msubretort.org) survey about what kind of content you would like to see more or less of, what sections of our paper you like the most, and if you would rather read our print edition or our website edition. Thank you in advance for you input.

Hopefully you will all enjoy our crossword and horoscope. Our Layout Editor, Leah worked very hard on both of them. All of our retorters worked hard on this issue - maybe even harder than usual because of our short turn-around time for this issue - and I am grateful for everything they have contributed. And you should be too.

Also, I would like to remind you that opinions expressed in The Retort articles, Letters To Editor, pictures, and creative writing are not the opinions of The Retort or Montana State University Billings, but may be the opinions of the writers. Even I, as an editor or person, do not always agree with these opinions. However, I do believe in the right to freedom of speech and I will publish writing and pictures even if I do not agree with them as long as they follow our guidelines.

There are a lot of articles in this issue that I particularly enjoyed, “One Step at a Time” by MSUB News Service on page 3 was very striking to me and made me think about joining Horton’s club. Stephanie’s article about the Oscars, brought me up-to-date for the event. I still cannot believe that Avatar has made more money in the box office than Titanic did. Are they accounting for inflation?

Ken Cunningham’s opinion piece on the National Tea Party Convention - something I had never previously heard about - caused me to look up and watch the convention on YouTube. I will not tell you what my remarks about the convention were. Joe’s draft preview on Rolle had me indignant that the NFL would question his commitment to football because he spent a year away from the sport as a Rhodes Scholar. Really, NFL could expect anyone to turn that opportunity down?

Leah’s opinion about Facebook had me laughing and also quietly signing out of my Facebook (by the way, The Retort has a Facebook page, just search for MSUB Retort.). And Lou’s column about the death of her computer - well we have all experienced computer trials, have we not?

Hopefully all of you will have a great Spring Break - whatever you may be doing during it - and you will be seeing The Retort again on March 26. In our March issue, we would love to see some articles or opinion pieces on the environment. If you are up for it, e-mail you work to us at msubretort@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Bailey Martin

Editor-in-Chief