Second Editorial Syndrome
Here's a question for you. What do I have in common with Lewis Hamilton, musicians, teenage mothers, Reading Football Club and knitters the world over?
Yes, you guessed it. We're all struggling the second time around.
The thing is, I haven't got a clue what to write in this editorial. EMR used to write brilliant editorials; a nice snappy bit about her life, maybe a good analogy or a snippet about h2g2, a mention of a few things we needed to know about and a reminder of the next deadline. She made it look easy.
You see, doing one on its own is pretty easy. You apologise in advance, explain that the boss is away and mumble a bit. No-one minds too much, and you slink back to obscurity the next week. My first issue was pretty easy, too, as I had the whole Beeblecast to talk about and lots of things to squeeze in. The second time, everyone expects that you know what you're doing, and you have to do things properly. Faced with a blank screen, I did what anyone hooked up to the Internet would do and messed about on Google for a bit.
Turns out I'm not alone. 'Second album syndrome' has become a much-used term to describe the problems rock bands face when everyone realises they aren't quite as good as everyone thought after all. Jackie Stewart has been talking about Lewis Hamilton's 'second season syndrome' in Formula One racing. Steve Coppell, Reading's manager, has used the same term to describe his side's problems this year. Teenage mothers apparently suffer more social disgrace if they have two children rather than one. And, deliciously, knitters suffer from 'second sock syndrome', frequently starting to knit a pair of socks but never getting round to doing the second.
I find that oddly reassuring.
Anyway, I do have some things to let you know about. First of all, our brief hunt for a new Features Editor has ended, with not one, but two new appointments. Yeah, I know, we're too good to you. So please welcome Eco Worrier, who is our new Features Editor, and Matt, our Content Editor. Matt's post is a new one for us, and he'll be the one running around the community finding new contributors and columnists to make The Post even better. Let's keep them both busy, eh?
On to this issue, and we have a few articles I'd really like to mention. After Mu Beta's nuptials, we have the welcome return of Entry of the Month, so please have a read and get involved with your votes. benjaminpmoore has a fantastic idea for a new fiction series based on EG Entries - essential reading for all of you creative types. And I'm really, really happy to see both the return of King Bomba's Working Stiffs, and the first in what will hopefully be a long series of restaurant reviews in Our Man in Milliways. The latter is open to all contributors, so please send in your own reviews and we'll feature you in a later issue.
Finally, a bit of good news from waaay back. In 2001, Abi wrote a wonderful This Sporting Life article about a racehorse called Gran Clicquot, a grey mare who had just won her second race at 100-1. Well, we received the happy news that Gran Clicquot gave birth to her first foal on Monday at 2.15am. More as we have it.
The deadline for the next issue is Sunday, 6 April - until then, we hope you enjoy this issue of The Post!
Skankyrich
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