People think
it’s easy being the PressLog.
Sigh. If they
only knew.
Our blog –
created and expertly curated to keep you informed on the comings & goings
of MIT Press books, journals, and authors – turns five this week. Gee, that sounds great, you
say to yourself. After all, five-year-olds are cheerful, energetic, and enthusiastic, and they enjoy making up games with simple rules. Supposedly they
like to put on puppet shows, too.
“Cheerful?” I
hear the PressLog shouting. “Enthusiastic? Are you KIDDING me?” The
almost-kindergartner then proceeds to carp at length about all the dark, sometimes
difficult topics it’s had to deal with this past year. It was on the front line
of stuff like Internet censorship, the Berlin Wall, and the financial turmoil in Greece. Heavy
topics like the Gulf oil spill, the health-care debate, and, horror of
horrors…Kanye West. Not to mention all those eccentric folks over at
Semiotext(e).
“I even had to
talk about the President of IRAN,” whines the little guy, “and I’m supposed to
be playing GAMES?” (Don’t even get it started on the puppets thing.)
As with most
five-year-olds, though, things looks better once they calm down a little bit.
And as we reflect on the PressLog’s fifth year, it turns out it wasn’t so bad - and pretty intellectually diverse to boot.
We asked whether someone had created life in the lab – and, if so, could you
patent it? We checked book price wars, asked you if you wanted to go to art
school, and marked Earth Day’s 40th anniversary. And we got multiple
opportunities to talk about one of our favorite women – Grace Hopper. (You go,
girl.)
All that
notwithstanding, the PressLog did have to take on some painful duties, such as
saying goodbye to some of our authors: Those whom we memorialized included Paul
Samuelson, Yegor Gaidar, Howard Johnson, Susan Leigh Star, Olga Amsterdamska,
Anne Friedberg, and Stephen Schneider. We also bid a sad farewell to author, board member, adviser, and all-around visionary Bill Mitchell, one of the best friends the Press ever had. All will be missed.
But hey, we
won lotsa prizes! And published our 9000th book! (Grammar as Science, but
you knew that.) And when it all got to be too much, you could just
meditate. Or go look at trees. Or, heck, talk like a pirate.
And as its
cruises headlong into its sixth year, the PressLog is getting more mature by
the day, ready to handle whatever hot topics and simmering debates arise in our
little intellectual universe. As always, thank you all so much for reading,
tweeting, and following - even the five-year-olds
among us appreciate it.
Oh, and about
that cake…well, maybe next year.
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