Long Live the What

FOR THE PAST 15 years, The Crimson has published a weekly magazine filled with reviews of art, music, movies, drama and books as well as in-depth features and personal essays.

But as of last week, the What Is To Be Done, which attempted to answer the ever-present question of how Harvard students can fill their spare time on this campus, is now dead.

Not since Bogart the cat died has The Crimson lost such a standard piece of our tradition and lore.

As an organization, we mourn the passing the "What" as we women the passing of our old building. We loved that old place too, but the ceiling was falling in and the electricity wasn't wired will and the sofas were smelly. In short, we know it's time to move on.

THE BERLIN WALL is gone, communism is fading into an esoteric academic study and, thus, we move from our reference to Vladimir Lenin's question, "What is to be Done?" to "Fifteen Minutes." Our new weekly magazine retains many of the old features of the "What" while adding many new departments.

Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would have fifteen minutes of fame. In this new world, he could be right. Hell, in a couple of years, we could all have our own cable channels. "Fifteen Minutes" is a fitting emblem for our generation.

For us the magazine has changed solely for the reason that in our new building, the magazine office no longer floods. We don't have to set mousetraps under the old layout tables and at our computer terminals; we no longer have chairs that rip our clothing.

NEWER IS NOT always better--we should be acutely aware of that in a school as tied to tradition as Harvard. Some may even feel that the replacement of the "What" with the new "Fifteen Minutes" is somewhat like callously buying a child a new puppy to replaced on one that has died.

But all good thins must come to an end.

David Letterman stopped doing Top 10 lists so that he could preserve the integrity of the genre--before he killed the joke. The "What" may be dead, but it will not die in obscurity. It will always be a legend in our folklore.