Editor's Letter
September 02, 2010
When I write “P.S.,” I mean it
I spend approximately $30 a month on stamps. Trips to the post office are biweekly, and the majority of my closet shelves and dresser drawers house saved correspondence. I own more than one wax stamp, and a friend added a personalized ink stamp to my collection for my birthday. I wouldn’t call snail mail my hobby as much as a third job — a trivial one that is occasionally sabotaged by the U.S. Postal Service, but a serious task nonetheless. I like to think that my pen pals depend on me (rather than are just annoyed by me). When I write “P.S.,” I mean it.
September 01, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from Aug. 19-25
(Web Exclusive) Many of our top stories from last week were part of our feature package "Columbia residents share their takes on the town." Local blogger Kate Canterbury's article picked up the most page views.
August 26, 2010
An introduction, a crushed childhood dream and Savage Garden
The first album I ever bought happened to be the first one that Savage Garden evercreated. It would appear that I was not born with good taste, but what I lacked in dignity, I made up for in enthusiasm — and stickers on my notebook.
August 24, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from Aug. 12 to 18
(Web Exclusive) The top viewed story this week was our feature on local hula hooping group the Hulagans. Although it has only been published about a week, this is already our second most viewed story of the summer. Most readers came from links on The Missourian, Facebook or hoopcity.ca, a Canadian hula hooping site.
August 19, 2010
Vox transitions from summer to fall
Do not throw this issue away. It will add to a landfill, but more importantly, it contains my final Vox editor’s letter. No doubt many of our readers have collections of special issues, and I feel like this is an obvious keepsake — sort of like my collection of Garth Brooks concert videos. Just be sure to let your teardrop stains on this page dry before you frame this piece of history and put it on your mantel.
August 17, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from Aug. 5 to 11
(Web Exclusive) Web analytics are great, but they can only tell you so much. For example, I know that one viewer got to this story by searching for "is mizzou a top party school in the us?" but I have no idea how he or she reacted to this article.
August 12, 2010
Video-renting nostalgia
When i was 7 years old, renting a Sega Genesis was one of the most exciting things I could imagine. I had an SNES (that’s a Super Nintendo to all you squares), but my attention span was about as long as a Royals winning streak. Side-scrolling Mario was entertaining for a time, but I got tired of knocking the wings off flying turtles. I craved excitement.
August 10, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from July 29-Aug. 4
(Web Exclusive) Bikers and Snoop Dogg topped the list of most viewed pages this week and lead to our highest traffic of the summer. Our feature on Columbia's biker culture got nearly double the pageviews that our top story usually gets in a week this summer.
August 05, 2010
Dream big
Some kids dream of being astronauts. Others want to be firemen, sports stars or even the president of these here United States. I wanted to be Garth Brooks. I still do.
August 03, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from July 22-28
(Web Exclusive) Most weeks our cover story is the top viewed story. But our feature on pests was no match for our article on the new strip club law. "Gov. Jay Nixon cracks down on the adult industry" got nearly double the pageviews as our cover story, with most viewers coming to it from Facebook and Twitter. Our accompanying "Create your own strip" club bill Mad Lib was also highly viewed.
July 29, 2010
Motorcycle fever may catch on
If you’re having a mid-life crisis, read this issue with caution. Our feature is all about the freedom and excitement a motorcycle can bring, and you could catch bike fever. I have too many aunts and uncles who bought Harleys around age 45 to take the allure of horsepower and chrome lightly. I also have too many uncles (but not aunts) who have crashed or dropped said Harleys.
July 27, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from July 15-21
(Web Exclusive) Busy week on VoxMagazine.com. We had the highest number of visits in a week of the summer, driven in part by Evan Bush's profile of MU grad student Gina Ceylan. Thanks for your comments and tweets on this story.
July 22, 2010
Pest control
“Dude, dude, a raccoon just walked out of the kitchen cabinet,” my roommate Andy said in a half-whispered, half-panicked voice. I crawled to the edge of the couch and saw a fuzzy little face staring back at me. I had been waiting for this.
July 20, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from July 8-14
(Web Exclusive) We never know what stories will turn up among the most viewed. Case in point: an article from last summer about Miss Hooters 2009 is our eighth most viewed story this week. Nearly all viewers got to this Q&A with MU graduate Raechel Holtgrave from search engines. What were they searching for? Among more sordid inquiries, three searches were apparently attempts to find out if she has a boyfriend (search terms: "raechel holtgrave boyfriend" and "hooters raechel holtgrave boyfriend"). And one search was simply "miss hooters oh my god."
July 15, 2010
Overcoming obstacles
Gina Ceylan’s sight fully deteriorated in February, but what she can do without her sight is amazing. “Blind with a vision” is not a sad tale about a blind girl. It is an inspirational story about someone who doesn’t pity herself despite a troubled past.
July 14, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from July 1-7
(Web Exclusive)
July 08, 2010
Summer sports
At the time this issue comes out, I will be engaged in a great American tradition — summer camp. More specifically, I’ll be at a faith-based motocross camp, which is the greatest idea in the history of summer recreation.
July 06, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from June 24-30
(Web Exclusive)
July 01, 2010
Fourth of July
My favorite holiday is upon us, and Vox has produced a fairly American issue in honor of the Fourth of July.
June 29, 2010
Top stories on VoxMagazine.com from June 17-23
(Web Exclusive) Every week, I compile a list of Vox's top-viewed stories to share with the staff. We thought you might be interested in this, too. Usually our cover story occupies the top spot for the week, but sometimes much older stories show up in the list from searches. For example, a few weeks ago, a 2007 story about the Olean testicle festival, No bones, just balls, was the second-most viewed story of the week.
Twitter
Facebook
