Fifteen Minutes: Editor's Note: To Us

We began as strangers. At our first dinner meeting I discovered Aaron's aversion to taste--hence the plain Cheerios and white rice. Before he knew my name, J.P. told me my Lacoste sweater was totally Connecticut. I remember asking Anna, for her first assignment, to photograph people making-out on Widener's steps. Mica claims I snubbed her in the Lamont bathroom freshman year but I think it went the other way around.

We've changed a bit since then. And in the process FM changed too--Dr. Know disappeared along with J.P.'s glasses, and the days of cryptic Ed Notes and liberal bolding have gone the way of the futura font, once signature FM.

The idea of a "final" issue tempted us to break new habits and rediscover what we've cast off over the years. There was something inspiring about the crummy, faded pages of the "old school" FMs we unearthed. We were smitten with the concept of rediscovering the Fifteen Minutes that attracted rower-jock J.P. and pre-pubescent Aaron long, long ago. We're almost okay calling this issue a "humor magazine," formerly an offensive epithet. And so, as ex-Editor T.J. so pointedly predicted, we find ourselves "in the box" once again.

This final issue of FM takes inspiration from Andy Warhol as we shamelessly self-reference and glamorize, albeit briefly, a new cast of characters--15 people not our friends and not us.

I'll stop there. I'd rather not contemplate the magazine. For me, over-exposure kills the final product and I can never bear to read FM on Thursdays. The glory of an occasionally door-dropped 24-pager dims in the grim light of a Crimson sunrise. I'm saving my FMs to read them next semester.

We may love this damn magazine--but not for the newsprint but for the people. To those offended by the yearbook sentimentality oozing from this issue, please humor us. We're old. We're tired. And we're nostalgic.

As for the future, there'll be little energy for celebratory champagne at the close of this volume of Fifteen Minutes Magazine. But I hope we'll get around to having that drink soon enough because when we do, I'll buy a round and make a toast. In the meantime, I hope it will suffice to say:

Thanks, guys.