FM's Heroes

In publishing 24 pages each week, there are a lot of little details that need attending to that most readers don’t even think about. These tasks, often thankless and annoying, have been taken up by the people on this page and next, and have kept the magazine running smoothly, reading well and looking good for the past year. Frankly, FM couldn’t have done it without them and this is our little, self-indulgent way of saying thank you.

Anne K. Kofol and Kate L. Rakoczy

When Anne K. Kofol ’04 gets really excited she emits this very rapid fire, very high pitch sing-song sort of yell. It doesn’t really matter what, exactly, she’s talking about; it could be Russian monks, the importance of the term first-year over freshman, or what is or is not a reasonable amount of time to spend writing blurbs on the table of contents to name a few subjects of note. This year we at FM were lucky enough to have Kofol’s distinctive tenor alternately cheerleading and nudging, gently correcting our libelous tendencies and appropriately praising a witty headline (and nary a well-crafted editors’ note). In contrast to Kofol’s enthusiastic volume, her proofing colleague Kate L. Rakoczy ’04 reassures with her quiet presences. One morning when a computer and the film-processor both failed in short succession, Rakoczy mused that it was amazing how everything can conspire against us in one fell swoop. She then cheerily fixed the computer glitch, reloaded the film processor and delivered the remaining pages to the light table. Both Kate and Anne have been the consummate breakfast companions over eggs and Diet Coke in Adams. The magazine has been cleaner, clearer and even earlier under their devoted guardianship.

Hayley B. Barna

Velour has never looked so good. Uber-designer Hayley B. Barna ’05 adds a little style to dreary FM production nights in her fab Juicy sweats and funky sneakers. Lucky for us, Hayley loves FM so much that she never leaves The Crimson. Well, maybe. She loves us enough that she doesn’t bitch when we give her stories three days late. Quirky and energetic, Hayley is much more than a designer. This superstar creates beautiful pages with the greatest of ease but is also always up for a game of Boggle, a screening of The Simple Life or a trip to Dunkin’ Donuts. Though her name will soon be off the FM masthead, Haybay won’t be going far. As the incoming design chair, Hay is charged with the daunting task of making every section exquisite in color—and after a year of creating gorgeous magazine covers using only one lonely color each week, we’re confident Hayley will adeptly harness the thrills of technicolor with her creative genius.

Sarah P. Law and Andrew M. Sadowski

There are few people who would trek out in two feet of snow, the pouring rain or the middle of the night to take a photograph. But Andrew and Sarah have had the dubious honor of serving as photo executives for FM for the last year, and thus have been at the mercy of the erratic schedule of the magazine and the even more erratic New England weather. These veteran photographers have covered more stories than they probably care to remember and have met more campus characters than even intrepid FM writers can keep tabs on. With patience and photographic flair, this dynamic duo has never let us settle for anything less than perfection. Hours after FM hits doorboxes, e-mails reach our inboxes in which these two and their dedicated protégés, Andy, Paul and Thea, meticulously comment on each page of the magazine, from every missed caption and incorrect credit to perfect cropping and a great job playing with the contrast and levels of a photo (Editor’s note: I still don’t know what levels are). Though both Andrew and Sarah are moving on to greener, less FM-dominated pastures next semester, the magazine will be left in the capable hands of roommates and lovers of Vikings, Paul and Andy.

David H. Gellis

There are few sights more frightening than a tall, slightly off-kilter man jumping from desk to desk in a windowless newsroom, leapfrogging monitors and knocking papers and coffee cups to the floor while bassless music blasts from computer speakers. Grumbling from his desk in the corner of the newsroom, Gellis chugs his Diet Coke and yells across the newsroom to comment on a conversation that no one thought he could hear. A huge fan of fierce debates, Gellis sticks his head anywhere, even if he knows the welcoming won’t be warm. When FM gets in content riffs with other boards, Gellis is often there to mediate and prevent cat fights from flaring up (or spur them on). Though he does try to leave The Crimson to catch a quick shower or an occasional class, this dedicated newsie is always on-call. He can change the Imagesetter film in his sleep (or at least talk any idiot through the process from his bed in Dunster) and he’s become an expert in installing memory, upgrading software and annoying everyone in the newsroom by paging the entire building to bitch about late writers and finicky technology. In a conscious effort to coordinate content in all sections, Gellis has stepped in to proof the magazine on a number of occasions. Even when he isn’t critiquing every page and missing grammatical errors, Gellis has been there for the mag. Behind the scenes, late at night, early in the morning, he’s always ready for a fight with territorial and feisty magazine editors.

Anthony S.A. Freinberg

Tony’s tasty restaurant reviews and his candid endpapers on being an Anglo-American hybrid would earn him a hero’s welcome from the magazine on their own. Yet the Crimson’s staff director gets extra kudos for directing FM’s staff to meet his exacting standards as proofer. FM’s favourite Brit never fails to catch and criticise a spelling mistake, but is always eager to relieve us of a few aluminium cans of American beer and keep the crew in good humour. The staff were always keen to have him proof, especially when he told us that our copy was bloody brilliant. That might have happened once or twice.