The Northerner staff is dedicated to pushing the envelope for every element that goes into the newspaper.

They’re always trying to think of new and cool ways to make the paper more interesting for their audience.

The stories, pictures and design are, of course, the main ways they try to entice readers to pick up the paper. There are other elements that go into a newspaper, though, that can make all the difference in the world.

An analysis of recent conversations around the office reveal that these elements are indeed important and need to be examined just a closely as everything else in the paper.

Envelopes need to be pushed.

For starters the editor of the Northerner has been catching a lot of flack from other staff members for not including a crossword puzzle in the paper. He is told that a lot of people pick up the paper just to fill in the boxes.

There are two reasons why the editor doesn’t put the crossword puzzle in the paper. The first one being that he has a horrible memory and keeps on forgetting. The second reason might be subliminally linked to the first in that he doesn’t want to admit the fact that the crossword puzzle takes presedence in some people’s minds over the other information in the paper.

But, the editor reluctantly admits that his staff is right and a crossword should be included in the paper. The editor would like to remind them, though, to be patient because he’ll probably forget.

And then there’s the issue with the North Poll, which the editor feels is a weekly curse visited upon him by some early Northerner editor who instituted the section to spite future papers.

For some strange reason the editor finds it nearly impossible to come up with questions to give to a staff photographer to spring upon unassuming students. This, combined with the fact that his memory is so bad he can barely remember where he parks his car sometimes, means that the North Poll is done at the last second, which really aggravates the photographers, justifiably.

The editor also has an idea of his own.

He has considered suggesting to the staff at one of their story meetings that the North Poll undergo a transformation. Instead of asking such inane questions like “what features would you like to see included in the new dorms?”, he thinks they should start asking age old questions like “where do we go when we die?” and “what is the meaning of life?” just to see what answers come up.

He is worried, though, that he’ll be shot down so he’s planning on keeping it to himself and foucsing, for now, on trying to find the answer to find “crossword question here.”