Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Crapper Point Journal




The Crapper Point Journal was a response to the official student newspaper for The Evergreen State College, The Cooper Point Journal.

Here's how I got roped into this. During my very last quarter at Evergroove a faculty member who shall remain anonymous but is named Margaret Gribskov contacted me and asked if I would be willing to participate in a spoof of the CPJ. Of course I would. So she introduced me to a fellow named Ken Silverstein.

Ken was a new arrival to TESC and was struck by how pompous and lockstep the place had become as contrasted to the earlier reputation the school had enjoyed as a more libertarian institution. His idea was to create a newspaper for the college set in the future. That's why even though the paper was really released on June 6, 1979, it carries a date of December 12, 1985.

So I drew the masthead and a couple cartoons. Ken, I think, did all the writing. Margaret bankrolled the project. For most of the humor in this publication all I can say is you really had to be there at the time to get it. The jokes were extremely local and topical.

In the brief time I worked with Ken I was impressed by his sharp observations and energy. Today he is a well known journalist and writer, mostly known his work in the Los Angeles Times and Harpers. Today he appears to be in freelance transition. Definitely an engaging journalist to follow.