Dearest readers,

This month, you might have noticed a slight anomaly in our print. The article that I prepared, titled “Meme Culture and Jesuit High School,” explored how memes can denigrate serious points and distract us from discussion. Yet this month’s cover feature was a satire on the prevalence of Igloos at Jesuit. Isn’t such a hysterical piece distracting from, even subversive of, the other content in the paper?

Consider another possibility: this is a meta move. Perhaps The Plank’s staff is a group of avant-garde artists and drifters, calling out the establishment while also existing within it to draw attention to the hypocrisy and impurity that plagues us all. Indeed, every word we have ever penned, especially those in “Igloo,” are backed by miles and miles of subtext. Or something.

Personally, I’m a fan of the theory that this is a high school newspaper. Our audience is the entire Jesuit community, a wide range of tastes and sensibilities that might or might not even read a whole issue cover to cover.

That’s what I tell myself, at least, when I lose sleep debating the philosophical consistency and artistic cohesiveness of this publication. I wish I could reassure you that that was no more than a self-deprecating remark, but I’d be lying if I hadn’t unironically considered such things.
So take what you wish from this month’s issue. My only hope is that everyone finds something to read and enjoy. Of course, if you’re slightly salty that you haven’t found a perfectly paced, wonderfully executed, and thought-provoking work of art in this month’s issue, you should go check out Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. It’s a wonderful book.