Eli Saslow

One letter came from an illegal immigrant. Another from a Tea Party supporter in Texas. An almost-bankrupt Michigan woman wrote a third.

For several months now, Eli Saslow (Sports Editor, Class of ‘03) has chased down these letter writers. They share little in common, except that each sent a letter to President Barack Obama. Saslow intends to use their lives, their thoughts and why they wrote to Obama to write a new book due to his publisher, Double Day, in February.

‘The book that I’m writing is kind of the story of the country in a year, told through these letters,’ Saslow said from his Montana house.

Saslow developed the idea for the book while working as a national enterprise writer for The Washington Post. Last March, Saslow wrote astory about the 20,000 letters Obama receives daily and how 10 of these letters end up on Obama’s desk. In the book, each chapter will feature a letter writer as the primary character, with Obama serving as a constant secondary character.

‘The fun thing about this is the diversity of the people who write to Obama is crazy huge,’ Saslow said.

To work on the book, Saslow took an eight-month leave of absence from The Post. He is also teaching a course on nonfiction narrative writing at the University of Montana.

Before moving to the national desk, Saslow covered sports for The Post.

At The Daily Orange, Saslow and fellow Poststaffer Chico Harlan remain best remembered for their profile on DeShaun Williams, the Orange’s bullying and spoiled point guard. The story’s lede recreates a scene atKonrad’s, where Williams held up a line for the bathroom so he could receive oral sex. ‘Obviously, I don’t think we could write that lede now at The Post,’ Saslow said. ‘But I’m glad we did it.’

By Abram Brown, staff writer, Adbrow03@syr.edu

 

Stephanie Miner

In the fall of 1990, Stephanie Miner (Asst. Editorial Editor, Class of ’92) learned responsibility working late nights at The Daily Orange.

‘It was a newspaper that was completely produced by students, and it was exclusively our responsibility,’ said Miner, who became Syracuse’s first female mayor in 2009. ‘You didn’t have any adults standing over your shoulder telling you what you had to do.’

Miner joined The D.O. after someone told her it would be a good experience. It lived up to her expectations, she said. In her time, Miner wrote editorials and dealt with letters to the editor.

The D.O. allowed Miner to indulge her news-junkie side, too. She learned to live by deadlines, a lesson she now uses as mayor.

‘Deadlines don’t wait for anybody, and they’re not flexible,’ Miner said.

Miner’s move from journalism to politics was an easy one, and she chose politics over journalism because of the chance to stand up for others, she said.

‘I liked being an advocate and advocating for people and thought that I was good at it —standing up for people who didn’t have a voice,’ Miner said.

Now frequently interviewed herself, Miner said she has encountered good journalists and bad journalists. For Miner, a good journalist is one who comes to the interview prepared and checks background sources and quotes accurately.

‘I always appreciate people who have done their homework, so they can just confirm details with me,’ she said.

Today, Miner hopes The D.O. will continue educating Syracuse University students about civic responsibilities they often see for the first time in their lives. But her own college years seem like a lifetime ago, Miner said.

‘Part of being mayor is that you don’t have time to look back,’ she said. ‘Only time to look forward.’

By Dara McBride, asst. news editor, dkmcbrid@syr.edu

 

Devin Clark

These days, Devin Clark tries to lighten America’s mood with werewolves, zombies and vampires.

‘I love fictionalizing the absurd in a normal way and the humor that’s born out of that,’ Clark said.

Today Clark (Cartoonist, Class of 2000) is starting work on the second season of Comedy Central’s ‘Ugly Americans.’ The show follows an average guy living in a New York City filled with ghoulish creatures of the night. His roommate: a zombie. His girlfriend: suspiciously attractive demon.

‘Instead of being scared and running from them, we’re trying to socialize with them and integrate them into society,’ Clark said.

It’s important that the show takes place in New York City, Clark said. The show was originally set in Washington, D.C., until one if its top writers, Dick Stern, suggested a setting in the Big Apple. The reason: New York is the only place a person could bump into a demon or werewolf and not blink.

Clark’s tendency to create fun-house mirror images of reality trace back to The D.O., where he wrote and drew his original cartoon, ‘Hassa Bassa,’ three times a week.

‘Most of the comic was either commentary on college itself or just little gags about the holidays,’ Clark said.

Clark shies away from calling his work controversial. But he remembers one particular D.O. cartoon that stirred a debate. Clark parodied an anti-drug public service announcement by having God walk in on Jesus smoking marijuana. The cartoon offended a D.O. staff writer so much, the writer stopped working for the publication, Clark said.

 ‘I can’t control how people respond to it,’ Clark said. ‘I can only do what I think is funny.’

By Flash Steinbeiser, Feature editor, ansteinb@syr.edu

Published on February 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm