Better late than never

Well, dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, now that it’s almost 2010, I guess it’s better late than never.

For the last 17 years, it’s been my honor to help keep Texas Exes up to speed on our beloved university and on each other by editing the Texas Exes’ historic magazine, The Alcalde. Now with this blog, “Texas Excess,” I’ll attempt to give those Texas Exes who love them some Alcalde a little bit of behind-the-scenes insight and a few tasty morsels that might not make it into the magazine. I don’t pretend to know what I’m getting myself into here, but blogging doesn’t seem to be a passing trend, and the editors who do it certainly seem to find it worthwhile ...

Our September/October issue, which I’m really happy with, has just come out. If you haven’t received it yet, I’ll ruin the surprise and tell you that we put Walter Cronkite on the cover, though it’s probably not any picture of Uncle Walter you’ve ever seen before. Inside, we’ve got a wonderful piece on Farrah Fawcett written mostly by alums who knew her here on the Forty Acres, and another profile on the late great Lowell Lebermann. I can’t remember an issue in the last 17 years that was dominated by feature-length obituaries, but, being the magazine of record for the University and its alumni, the marking of passages is an important part of what we do. With Cronkite and Fawcett passing on within days of each other, it drove home how lucky I am as an editor to work at a university that has produced such star power in our national culture. There are plenty of disadvantages to the mega-university, but having such a humongous pool of prominent alumni to cover is one of the distinct advantages of working here, one I’m reminded of every time I visit with my peers at other schools (some of whom haven’t produced a single alum with national name recognition).

The synchronicity was really quite remarkable: within days, the United States lost arguably its most famous cultural icon of the ’60s (Cronkite), of the ’70s (Farrah), and of the ’80s (Michael Jackson). And two of the three came from this very school. Though certainly not a pop culture icon, Lowell Lebermann represented by far the biggest loss of the year to the Texas Exes. Read his profile “The Living Man,” to find out why I placed him first in the line-up.

I should probably quit while I’m ahead. Thanks for reading “Texas Excess,” and use the comments to let me know what you think about the September/October issue or any other University of Texas issue.

Hook ’em Horns!

Avrel

Avrel Seale, Editor The Alcalde

Texas Exes - Serving the University of Texas Since 1885