Shoes, life and the Wildcat

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat

You walk all over them - just as you sometimes may feel trampled upon.

They get you where you're going - just as experience inevitably breeds opportunities.

Some shoes are impossibly hard to squeeze into.

Still others appear far too vast to fully fill.

I'm wallowing in that final group now, wondering how to live up to my editor in chief predecessors.

Is the Wildcat going to be pointed and cutting-edge? Can we make the newspaper more germane and address the issues we need to address? How can a balance be struck between what we believe our audience needs to know and what they want to read?

The questions spinning in my brain seem endless, and I won't bore you.

Then again, you've already beat typical newspaper readership statistics since you've read this far into a column.

For you intrepid few, here's the scoop...

Expect the same hard news coverage from the Arizona Summer Wildcat - only with weekly feature twist.

Got a date Friday? Check out our weekly calendar on page two.

Wondering about your favorite University of Arizona athlete? This summer's Wildcat has a full page and then some of sports coverage with much more emphasis on feature stories, player profiles and newsworthy tidbits.

Lookin' for a laugh? Try the brand-new Flipside back page with comic strips and humor columns.

Wondering about the world and nation? Go straight to the page two for the weekly wire wrap-up.

We've tried to compile a newspaper that has something for everyone. If you can't find something, however, then you're not everyone and that's good too!

I'd like to say that we Wildcatters are round-the-clock watchdogs, combing the campus for unimaginable stories, catching hardened cat burglars all while helping elderly ladies cross the street. Of course, we're not, but we always try our best. Something about a labor of love.

What I'm getting at is that our reporters and photographers can't be everywhere, so I'm asking you to keep an eye out for us.

Did you see a rippin' band that everyone should know about? Give us a ring.

What about that one-armed juggler on the Mall who balances on an upright jackhammer? Call us up and tell us about it.

Are you or is your department on the cutting edge in research? Call us.

How about a homicide? Did you witness a murder? Call the police.

The bottom line is we are always looking for stories and would love to hear from you.

I think you should know, though, that we do, however, keep a round-the-clock watch on UA Farms on North Campbell Avenue. If that guy tries to solicit oral sex from a horse again, expect a cover story -with pictures.

Just kidding.

Getting back to shoes though, I am reminded of the Canadian poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen.

In a 1967 interview, he expounded some sort of greatness - or at least said something that has always stuck with me.

"I have always said that my strength is that I have no ideas," Cohen said. That got me thinking.

Please don't get me wrong here. I have ideas. In fact, you'll likely read about many of them in the coming weeks and months.

But what I like to think Cohen was getting at is the power of beginning with a clean slate.

Although one must heed the past, humans by physical nature move in the present tense. We must do what's right for the here and now, as well as for the future.

Keeping this in mind, I'm going to make my own shoes, set my own lofty goals and begin with my own clean slate.

We've got a helluva a Wildcat team this summer.

I hope you'll read along.

Zach Thomas is Editor In Chief of the Arizona Summer Wildcat. He can be reached by email at wceditor@ccit.arizona.edu.