Groundbreaking journalism

The Auburn Plainsman over the years has earned the nickname "ComPlainsman" with its continual (and largely justified) editorials slamming Auburn University's board of trustees. The label, which many critics applied derisively, became an unspoken point of pride for many of the paper's staff members.

While doing a little Web surfing today, I discovered that The Plainsman has embraced the moniker openly for the last year or so by defanging it and converting it into a regular column called "ComPlainsman," in which anonymous people rant about mundane things to relieve tension and fill the news hole.

Really, this is good stuff. Among this week's revelations: People talk too loudly on their cell phones, professors like to brag about how much they know, and construction, indeed, "blows."