The Next Phase of J Squared

Hello there, faithful readers.

This blog post comes on the eve of an exciting new phase of my journalism career. After a grueling trial-by-fire as a Communications 321 student, I am now an actual employee of The Daily Universe (with a paycheck and everything). I was chosen to be the next editor of the Issues & Ideas page. I am so excited and can't wait for an exciting spring and summer of wordsmithing and lampooning.

During my semester in 321, I usually only posted links to my sports desk articles and opinion page cartoons without much explanation or commentary. But if that was simply not enough for some of you, just wait! There's more! In anticipation of a larger audience (now that I'm head of the most-read page of an 18,500-circulation newspaper), I'll probably have more here on this blog than what lands on the Issues & Ideas page ... a sort of "DVD Special Features" for page 3 of The Daily Universe. So all of you out there who are nerdy enough to watch movies with the director's commentary and are also interested in the issues of the day, this is your destination.

I don't know a whole lot about running the Issues & Ideas page, but I have a few ideas:

- I want to write a column quite often, perhaps weekly.
- Lots of my own political cartoons.
- I'm going to see if it is possible to use the Universe's current subscription to a political cartoon syndicate to feature the work of Gary Varvel (conservative) and either Tom Toles or Clay Bennett (liberal), some favorite cartoonists of mine.*
- I'll have a lot of technological interaction available, here on the blog and also for anyone who has caught onto Twitter (Follow me at @joshjoed!)

I am looking forward to an adventure in discussing current events and sharing ideas with my fellow BYU Cougars.

*It seems like some of these cartoonists' official websites are a little outdated. You can also find their work here or here. (These are websites that collect cartoons from all kinds of cartoonists all over the country, so it might take a while to find the cartoonist you're looking for. But enjoy all the cartoons in the meanwhile!)