The other day, my roommate told me the only reason I am involved in schmooze is because it’s my excuse to make as many bad puns as I want. I thought about that for awhile. I do love good-or bad-word play (where do you think last issue’s schmoo-sic section came from?), but am I only involved in this magazine because I like to, well, schmooze? But then I thought about it some more. Who doesn’t love witticisms? In fact, isn’t that what makes anything entertaining? And, in a way, this issue of schmooze is like its very own pun.

Let’s look at the first meaning of this issue: our theme of the “Every Jew.” Sure, we feature impressive people, like professional basketball player Tamir Goodman (pg. 26), artist Zak Yitro (pg. 20), and video game programmer Mike Mandel (pg. 17), but deep down they are all nerdy Jews with big ideas. That’s something that we can all strive to do. And what about the flipside of this issue:
the “Serious Jew”? One of our writers asks what happens after Jewish marriages end (pg. 23), while another explored why a Jew would defend a Klansman in trial (pg. 21). We all have important questions to ask.

So maybe not everybody loves puns, per se, but life is more interesting when we have
more than one dimension to ourselves. Ask Pixar.

Happy schmoozing!

Emily Laermer

e-laermer@northwestern.edu

P.S. Our editor-in-chief,
Sabrina Lazarus, was
frolicking in Barcelona last
term, but she’ll be back for
spring issue!