Fearlessly leading NBN in to the unknown, all the while annoying a few people along the way. Sounds like our kind of guy!
Photo: via Facebook
The insulated world of student journalism tends to be fleeting. Rarely does a student come along who leaves an indelible imprint in our minds. But Nick Castele, outgoing Editor-in-Chief of NBN, is not just anybody. Wielding the formidable power of every single one of NBN’s listservs, Castele made sure that he wouldn’t be forgotten by those unlucky lucky enough to have signed their names on a sheet of paper at the Medill publications fair. An Intel tipster told us to check out his zany, unpredictable, and borderline annoying e-mails. Some of the best (and worst) of Castele’s threads from his reign as EIC after the jump.
4.) The greetings Nick went through a period where he insisted on starting every e-mail off with different salutations beginning with the letters NBN. Our top picks: “To all those Neatly Baking Naan,” “Noble Brethren of the Northwest Territory,” “Good morning to all of you Neurotically Brandishing Nunchucks,” and “Noodle-loving Barristers of Nottingham.”
3.) The New Year’s sobriety While we spent the final moments of 2010 celebrating with a few too many drinks in the company of good friends, the ever-dedicated EIC spent his New Year’s Eve thinking about NBN. We know this because he sent a “Happy New Year’s!” e-mail at 12:21 AM CST. What a sweetheart!!
2.) The non sequiturs We didn’t quite get his links. Big man of small tribes? Or the metaphors: “A child has been born. Please, take a moment to hold the magazine, cradle it, love it.”
1.) The Lion King metaphors (???!) In a call out for EIC applications, Nick enticed candidates by comparing the them to Simba and himself to Mufasa. In verbatim:
“The time for me to depart my kingdom is almost nigh. The sun is setting on my reign. Scar’s hyenas have herded my Simba into the ravine, and I must soon greet my doom beneath the hooves of the wildebeest. Mufasa will take his place among the stars, and a new king shall roar at sunrise from the windswept clefts of Pride Rock. You could be my Simba. The Savannah could be yours. I am being told that our next EIC will be christened on the roof of McTrib at sunrise. So look forward to that. Also: We are now accepting auditions for the role of Raffiki.”
Our apologies: An unedited version went live. WordPress hates us sometimes.
I don’t know who he is, but I think he’s hilarious.
NBN has no contractual agreement that prevents any of their writers from writing for a new publication. They’re just not allowed to write for the same section. (i.e. if they write for NBN Sports, they can write for campus news at NU Inter or the Daily)
Check on stuff like this before publishing.
Hey Fact Check,
First of all, thanks for reading! We weren’t implying none of NBN’s writer’s base can’t work for us at all, but rather that we were discussing how unfortunate it is a few talented niche writers (Feature writers, music writers, etc) we really admire can’t come over and write in those niches for us. There are writers at NBN we would love to have freelance for us, but they are held by their contractual obligations, albeit to the section and not the whole publication. We chose not to expound on this point because it’s not really the focus of the post… at all.
Sorry if the wording of the sentence was misleading though, it was not intended to be. Hope you keep reading!
Best,
Shiraz Ahmed
Buzzard Editor
These emails are not nearly as ridiculous as NU Intel’s commentary on them.
In most parts of the world, NBN stands for Naughty by Nature. I feel like this point could have been taken advantage of. But seriously, I met this kid a couple times and he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I don’t think it’s nice to attack his totally benign emails like this just because he works for a competitor. Many Nu student groups send out questionable listservs and these ones aren’t even offensive, just goofy.
[...] to the same tradition, but let me say as a managing editor that it was a joy to serve under Nick Castele, one of the kindest and most capable human beings I have ever met. Next quarter Matt Connolly, who [...]