By Meg Britton-Mehlisch and Celia Heudebourg

This week The Mac Weekly bids farewell to its own seniors. The incoming Editors-in-Chief talk with Rachel Wilson, Jamie Goodin, Ellie Fuqua, Jake Greenberg, Max Horvath, Maddie Jaffe, Eliza Ramsey, Allie Korbey, Kate Rhodes and Esha Datta. They discuss office memories and the Wac Meekly.

TMW: This is the last paper with all your names on it. First thoughts?

Allie Korbey: Thank God.

Kate Rhodes: I want to go to bed.

Ellie Fuqua: Four years in the making.

Jake N. Greenberg: I think our record for having stayed the latest is 5:15 a.m. I say we smash it tonight.

Max Horvath: Definitely want to be out tonight after the Star Trib is already delivered.

JNG: And that’s the only way Max tells time.

Maddie Jaffe: It’s that and whether or not McDonald’s is serving only breakfast. We got there at 4:30 a.m. and…

AK: They were like no nuggets, and we were like, we just did a paper, and they were like no nuggets.

[All laugh].

On that note, we have an either/or. Late night pizza or McDonald’s Drive Thru?

[Resounding agreement on McDonald’s].

JNG: The best moment in Mac Weekly McDonald’s is we went and ordered, a bunch of different people got nuggets, and we ordered 32 nuggets, to which the woman at the drive thru asked us, “Do you do this often?”

AK: And then she came out of McDonald’s and hand-delivered them to the car.

MH: But, there was a more cost effective way.

MJ: That you could get 40 for cheaper than 32.

MH: Like Costco.

MJ: There was also the time when we won a $25 gift card to a used book store from WMCN’s 24-hour radio show.

Let’s go back to basics. Why did you join the paper!?

KR: I joined halfway through first year for apparently no reason. I sat on the couch for six months and then was absorbed into the Arts section by this special Allie Korbey.

AK: You were also immediately the most social out of all of us. All of us were very quiet.

EF: We were the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed journalists, and you became editor and I decreased my participation.

KR: There used to be a lot of dancing on The Mac Weekly. I feel like now it’s just a general coolness.

EF: Amy Leibowitz [’15] and Sophie Nikitas [’14] used to dance. What happened, we failed?

AK: And Solange.

JNG: Yeah, “Losing You” was a big part of the Weekly, and we lost that.

Rachel Wilson: And at the beginning they would flash the lights. It was super dramatic.

EF: What did we leave? What is our legacy?

KR: Yeah, what’s our legacy?

AK: THE RE-STRUCTURING OF THE LEADERSHIP AND PAYMENT WITH THE ADMINISTRATION.

MJ: In terms of joining the paper, correct me if I’m wrong, I think I’m different from everyone here in that I’ve never written an article?

[Resounding yes].

Jamie G. Goodin: I’ve written several Features articles.

MJ: I think everyone has written very good articles, and I’ve written none.

RW: I joined the paper in order to write satirical food reviews.

KR: Yeah! The Rachel and Rachel and Rachel!

RW: And then I quickly became News Editor. Sharp detour.

ER: I joined after Gilfix [’16] wrote a particularly inflammatory piece on women in sports and I decided the sports section needed a little gender parity.

JGG: I used to think it was called the Wac Meekly. And I wanted to see what the Wac Meekly was all about.

MJ: Is it Wac and Meek?

JGG: I don’t know. Sometimes. Not usually.

Speaking of The Hege, how do you see the future of the TMW/Hege relationship?

JNG: The last four years, we have to be honest, have been an absolute disaster. When we got here it seemed like a genuine rivalry. But, thanks to cross-pollination, Jamie Goodin, Austin Parsons [’17], Lydia Karlson [’16], Will Milch [’19]…unfortunately we’re pretty tight as organizations now so it’s a disaster.

JGG: We just have fun parties together.

AK: I mean, I don’t think there can be a collab. I don’t see what that would look like. It’s not in the works.

Esha Datta: I’m hoping the current trend of TMW slowly overtaking The Hege will continue.

KR: But, we’re all against Chanter.

[a few people say “Xander rocks”].

JNG: I’m fully against Chanter and the arts.

AK: Catch Jake’s Arts column this week.

Who really is the new Lindsey Smith [’16]?

AK: Not Max Horvath.

MH: It’s me. Listen, literally all I’m missing is the glasses with the chain. I’ve got the dance moves, I’ve got the flexibility, I’ve got the schedule, and I have the poise.

JNG: One thing we absolutely ruined about The Mac Weekly is that we have no elegance.

What do we have instead of elegance now?

AK: Grime.

MJ: A new camera!

MH: We got red cords for graduation. We have knishes.

JGG: I think we have panache.

KR: But do we have ganache?

MH: We have knishes.

Biggest publishing fuck-ups?

AK: “Winnners” in front page headline… I think we’re pretty transparent about our fuck-ups generally.

Eliza Ramsey: Jake once got called out hard for the devaluations of the contributions of a certain club team.

JNG: That’s true. I disrespected the Macalester Crew Club team. I mentioned that they hadn’t had a season in four years and they got very angry about that.

MH: Although that was an objective fact.

So we have a philosophical question. Can “Democracy Live in Darkness?”

AK: Shut up, Washington Post.

JNG: Yeah, I hate that.

JGG: Check it out in the Opinion section this week.

Be honest, did you buy a Milch visor?

MJ: No.

MH: I stole one.

KR: I almost bought one and then he told me he broke even, and now I don’t have the passion. He broke even like two weeks ago. The rugby coach bought one. I want to be gifted one at graduation, @Milch?

Is there a story or photo you always wanted to report or include?

MH: Something like “Way Back at Mac,” something that happened in the past.

ED: Yes, but it actually got written by Isaac Slaughter [’19] this year. I was obsessed with the WacPac for a long time.

JGG: The cracks in the Leonard Center’s foundation.

MH: The moral foundation?

JGG: No, no, no the physical foundation.

So on top of having a flat roof, it has cracks in the foundation?

JGG: It wasn’t investigated…I want to investigate it.

JNG: I got a tip last summer about a potential Watergate situation… we’ll just say there was a Watergate situation.

What’s the most awkward thing that happened in layout in four years?

AK: Awkward?

MH: I mean [two of our co-Editors-in-Chief] were going back-and-forth between dating each other and not talking at all.

ER: We have dealt with our fair share of contention.

KR: Learning how to let people go from the staff.

ER: There have definitely been some tense basement meetings.

AK: Like there are in any workplace.

EF: Lots of tense conversations about layout.

JGG: I just stay in my corner.

MH: All of the awkward situations, they’re highly classified, more than top secret. I don’t even know all the details.

AK: That’s because you’re not paid staff.

MH: You know what I wanted to report on, more team profiles.

KR: We should just do baseball.

MJ: Oh, I thought you said teen profiles.

MH: Local teens.

[pause]

JNG: You don’t have a last question ready?

MH: Ok, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve seen Jake do in the Mac Weekly Office?

AK: I had a series of snap stories that were “Drake Jake” where he would be eating and jamming and reading spreads. And Jake exclusively reads spreads out loud. We appreciate you.

MJ: He reads to himself and rocks back and forth while he does it.

EF: I don’t know, I love seeing Jake transform into Editor-in-Chief. I always told you about that. Like [he’s] typically the most laid back guy, to see you be like cut-throat Editor-in-Chief is funny.

AK: You were so cut-throat, Jake.

MH: You cut so many throats.

Are there other nice memorable things? Are you lacking in good memories in The Mac Weekly department?

KR: Every gathering outside of the office.

JNG: I love The Mac Weekly. It’s been my favorite thing at Macalester, and it’s a wonderful place and everyone should write for it.

AK: And we’re never fake. We aren’t.

JNG: We’re never fake. And I love these people.

Any other closing thoughts?

RW: No.