Editor’s Note: (Re)introducing The Observer
Nathan Lesch, Executive Editor
August 21, 2020
Needless to say, the logistical difficulties and uncertainty facing Case Western Reserve University as a whole due to COVID-19 will also challenge The Observer this coming semester. Half of our staff will be off-campus, including myself. We will be doing all our production work remotely. And, journalism,...
Editor’s Note: The importance of journalism during protests
Nathan Lesch, Executive Editor
June 7, 2020
I had planned to introduce myself—and reintroduce The Observer—to Case Western Reserve University’s community at the onset of the fall semester. While I still intend to do that, I would be remiss if I didn’t use my platform to address the pervasive bigotry and racism in our society, explain ...
Editor’s note: Goodbye Observer
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
April 28, 2020
Across America two months ago, college students jammed the highways returning home as universities shut down from coronavirus. Case Western Reserve University received the news during spring break, while many of our friends were home or on vacation, so we never got the chance to have one last drink, ...
Editor’s Note: Mr. Rogers and the virtue of wasting time
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
January 23, 2020
Mr. Rogers has enjoyed a cultural resurgence in recent years. Tom Hanks’ turn at donning the red sweater and giving life to the children’s show host’s “Land of Make Believe” earned him an Oscar nomination. Rogers has the reputation of a secular saint, the rare star who is exactly as he appea...
Editor’s note: Halloween, drag shows and Wilde, freeing costumes
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
November 1, 2019
Halloween costumes originated to help people deal with problems from the other side. In my story on the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, curator Steven Intermill discussed how the tradition of dressing up as monsters was originally a way for pagans to fend off evil spirits during the Celtic ...
Editor’s Note: Learning from the past
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
October 11, 2019
The Observer has been in existence for more than twice my lifetime. Reading alumni letters, I realized the founding of The Observer 50 years ago was not just a creation of a campus newspaper for the fun of it, but an inherently political act. Paul E. Kerson, one of the founders of The Observer, said the go...
Letter to the Editor
September 20, 2019
Dear Editor: According to the New York Times, Deborah Ramirez and Max Stier, as well as perhaps some 20 plus others, came forward to describe Kavanaugh sexual acts and peculiarities. None were interviewed by the FBI. Only Christine Ford was allowed to testify at Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmat...
Editor’s Note: My Hispanic heritage
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
September 13, 2019
My living room has the usual markers of a college hipster crash pad, the alcohol bottles as decorations on the wall, the collection of musky used vinyl records, the stacks of books on the shelves. But my room has one important outlier: On the wall, encased over a Spiderman II poster, is a soccer jersey, ...
Editor’s Note: CWRU professor Michael Clune on a pixelated childhood
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
September 6, 2019
Everyone can remember the first video game they loved. For me, it was “Spyro the Dragon” for the PS1 when I was around ten-years-old. The three-dimensional graphics and mythology captured my ten-year-old brain. Though I only occasionally play video games now, I still remember how much I enjoyed the...
Editor’s Note: Ch-ch-changes
Matt Hooke, Executive Editor
August 23, 2019
Orientation Week is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. For many incoming students, you’re living away from home for the first time, surrounded by a bunch of people you’ve never met, in a city you may barely know. Don’t be a jerk to your roommate and take advantage of the opportunity to ex...
