...and their memories

Rachel Campbell
I doubt I have much to add really because I lived in the Diversions office until Fall 2000 when I was managing editor. I'm sure you know how the Diversions people tend to be oblivious to everything else besides movies and films. Heck, we didn't even have a window to the outside world! However, the one night I will always remember will be election night 2000. We had an assignment editor who lives for presidential elections like some people live for watching the next USC football game. For him, watching the "results" was the most exciting thing. He even had a poll going for members of the staff to make their predictions on who will when and by how many electoral votes. Simply put, it was pure craziness election night. To top it off, 10 minutes before we were about to send the DT off for the night with the top article saying that no official declaration of the winner had been made at press time, the news stations said Bush won. So, we changed the first few paragraphs and put a banner headline saying something like Bush wins. And that's how it came out the next day, much to our embarrassment and dismay! So, that was probably my most interesting night at the DT. Hope that helps. Add your own memory

Erik Fong
As far as the DT staff at the time I was around, I wish I could tell you more but I can't. I wasn't a very integral part of the paper. I did CD reviews here and there and never really hung out with the staff. Honestly, I felt pretty out of place. I asked DT staffer Rachel Campbell out via email once (currently ranked #634 in my list of the top 1000 lamest and nerdiest things I've ever done in my entire life) but that's about it. If something pops into my dumbass' head then I'll be sure to let you know. Add your own memory

Christine Frey
My farewell column. Add your own memory

Blake Hennon
Blake started at the DT as a music reviewer, but wrangled by then-Theatre/Feature Editor Alexander Nguyen to write a few theatre reviews and feature pieces for him. As a reward for his services, Blake was sent to review a concert at the House of Blues while he was still under age. Blake, however, talked his way in and was able to review the concert on the balcony away from the guests and bar -- by himself. He moved on to the copy desk, which was perfect for him because he had a knack for using obscure words such as "avuncular" in his stories. Blake has a very dry sense of humor, which the office found out when he was editorial director and had to read about issues that no one on the staff gave crap about. Blake was also the one who broke the recount/revote curse that had befallen the editor in chief elections of late. (Gee, I hope this didn't read like a funeral eulogy.) Add your own memory

Raymond Lew
i actually didn't spend much time in the DT office...i was pretty much only there to type up my column and send it in...i got involved pretty late in my 'sc career: "Raymond wrote the scarcely-read Friday column "My Left Eye Hurts" in Fall 2000 & the more popular Wednesday column "This Is Sarcasm" in Spring 2001. He thinks he won a DT award for best column in Spring 2001 for an article titled "Nothing Left To Lews: Vote Raymond Lew For President"...but can't be 100% certain. He wishes that he got involved in the DT earlier than his senior year so he would have a better conversation piece at parties and over time learn proper grammar and sentence structure hopefully. Add your own memory

Arash Markazi
I was looking at your site the other night while I was at work. Anyway, I'm a junior at USC right now and I was the Sports Editor of the DT last fall (2001) and an Assistant Sports Editor before that in the Spring. I guess I came to the DT at the perfect time for a sports writer as I got to travel to the Great Eight with the men's basketball team, the College World Series with the baseball team and the Las Vegas Bowl with the football team. I'm currently working at the Daily News, doing agate and covering mostly prep sports. I've run across my fair share of DT alumni recently so I though I'd give you some updates. Add your own memory

Yvonne "Evie" Ngai
A quote that describes Evie well: "The Oregonian thinks they're getting a copy editor, but what they're really getting is an obsessive-complusive freak." -- Blake Hennon (spring 2003's editorial director). Says Evie: When Petey was EiC and I was managing editor, we tried to fool the "rookies" (first-time senior editors) into thinking there was an initiation process involved with becoming a senior editor. We told them to beware, that we would make them do something crazy their first night of boxing. I remember two distinctly: Patrick Kinmartin, sports editor, and Katie Lemmon, copy chief. On Patrick's night, we made him run up and down the hallway while yelling repeatedly at the top of his lungs, "Peter is the best editor ever, and Yvonne is a beautiful princess." For Katie, she had to somehow get a DT hanging from Tommy Trojan's sword. She ended up wrapping a paper around a water bottle that was tied to a rope, and she threw the bottle around the sword, letting it loop several times so it would stay. I'm surprised we never got in trouble because of the TommyCam, which caught every moment of our adventure. Then there was the time when I was city editor and freezing to death at my desk in the corner. Mona had bought me a heater and an extra one that she put in Ron's office, although he never used it because he was never cold. So that day, I went in there and took his, too, and plugged it in next to mine in the same outlet. I turned both of them on, and five minutes later, the entire back wall of the office went black. "Pop, pop, pop, pop" went the computers along that wall, one by one shutting themselves off. I'd blown a fuse! After that, I was never again allowed to have both heaters on at the same time. Add your own memory

Kevin Pang
Rachel Campbell and Mark Carpowich chose me to pen a column for the then-Diversions section my freshman year in 1999, and only now do I realize one thing: none of them [columns] ain't even close to a good clip when applying for news internships. Then somewhere along the line, I became Lifestyle Editor and Design Director. I recently (May2003) visited STU 421 for the first time in about 6 months. Saw Ron Flores and made fun of some of the DT staffers...but otherwise, good times. The Daily Trojan was for a lot us, our home away from apartment/dorm during our college years. Here are some memories I can recollect, 1999-2002: