Basics:
Name: Brendan Higgins
Year: Senior
Major: Economics with a Philosophy minor (They didn’t have an English minor so I decided to go with it!)
What are you involved with: I am a Captain of the Swim and Dive team, Co-Head of Greeters for Liturgical Ministry, and the Editor of The Eggplant.
Tell us about The Eggplant: Well, after the death of The Tomahawk in the early 1990’s our newspaper The Crusader didn’t have a dedicated satirical section for quite some time. The satirical page was a throwaway section of Features in the newspaper for a while, but three years ago Zach Lanning, who graduated last year, made it his own. He took over as the first official editor of The Eggplant as its own section in the newspaper. He’s one of my best buds, and he did an amazing job with making the section what it is today. I really am just carrying on his vision as best as I can. The Eggplant is an Onion inspired satirical journal which is accessible to anyone on campus. I use it to voice my feelings about what is going on around The Hill (like the Her Campus debates). In my opinion, It’s easier to point out how someone is being absurd if you yourself are absurd. While not all the articles are hard hitting social commentary and a whole lot of them are very silly and stupid, I’ve found the best articles are the ones that come from a place of annoyance or passion.
So, I understand The Eggplant is undergoing a rebranding of itself? Yes. Well Maybe. I will be stepping down from the editorial position in the spring (while still writing a bunch). My editor-to-be Karl Beckman and I were hoping to start the semester with a bang by renaming the section. The Eggplant’s spiritual predecessor was The Tomahawk which was in the paper in the 70’s and 80’s. However, the whole section got cut for a number of reasons, partially due to budget constraints, partially because it often got very personal (and to be honest offensive) which rubbed people the wrong way. What I really loved about reading the old Tomahawk articles is that people got passionate and angry about them in a way that sometimes (though, certainly not always) seemed to create positive dialogue in the newspaper. We were hoping to bring The Tomahawk name back but have been advised against it because of racial connotations. So, we have been fiddling with a number of different ideas. We aren’t sure exactly what we are going to call it yet but Karl is one of the funniest guys I know so I am sure we’ll come up with something good.
The idea to rebrand The Eggplant comes back to an article I wrote about how I didn’t like the rebranding of Holy Cross. I wrote both an oped and a piece in The Eggplant making fun of how the school isn’t changing anything except its appearances. In my article I discussed how we should all “Ask less.” I wanted people to stop complaining about how they hated the rebranding of the school because nothing has really changed. I sort of challenge Holy Cross to actually commit to a real rebranding or a return to the traditions that attracted me to the school. So, while The Eggplant can’t go back to tradition with our original name, Karl and I hope to bring back the spirit of The Tomahawk to our corner of the newspaper.
What inspired you to write the article about Her Campus in The Eggplant? I am on the swim team with a lot of the Her Campus staff, and for some girl to call my friends racist out of the blue just seemed so wrong and hateful. These girls are not just my teammates but my good friends and I couldn’t stand seeing someone who doesn’t even know them use MY newspaper to accuse them of things I knew were not true. I just got so fired up about it and decided to put my response in The Eggplant, I wasn’t sure how it would be received so I am really glad it didn’t blow up in my face haha.
What is your favorite memory at HC? Last year, we had a swim meet against Providence here at the Hart Center and my Dad was there with three of my four younger brothers and all my friends. I had personal bests on both boards and beat everyone from Providence. It was awesome to have my family and friends there to see me, it was easily the most fun I’ve had as a college athlete. I always feel like I have my best meets when I have a crowd of people cheering me on as narcissistic as that may sound haha. After the competition was over I did a big can opener as a joke but a lot of the crowd didn’t realize the event was over so I really turned some heads. I also love my time after practices trading jokes with head swim coach Barry Parenteau, he has some of the best and worst jokes I have ever heard.
What are your plans post graduation? I would love to follow up with comedy in some regards but so would millions of kids so I don’t know how realistic that is. I had an internship in the tech sector this summer so I would love to work in sales in that industry where I think I could be successful. The dream down the road I would be working in a job like sales where I also have time to make a little money on the side doing stand up comedy or something. That or my own TV show, but I’m taking baby steps right now.
Any advice for anyone who wants to write for The Eggplant? We are always looking for funny people, especially funny girls actually. If you have an issue you are passionate about, write it down and send it in! I think that is true of the The Crusader in general. The editors of newspaper have done a really good job recently about being a voice for student issues. I think it has been an incredible forum for student voice an opinion whether or not their opinions are right or wrong, and has even accomplished some real positive change within the school. So if you have a funny spin on something going on campus or whatnot just jot it down between five hundred and seven hundred words and send it to me or Karl.
Do you have any other projects in the works we should know about? I may have an R&B album in the works with my man John Daly but I am not sure how many details I am allowed to leak about that to the media at this time unfortunately. Lastly I’ll have my final home meet ever on February 1st against Bryant so everyone should come to that, it should be a really good time.
Any last remarks? Well my roommate Andrew Mallalieu said if I mentioned him in this article in a positive manner he’d buy me a six pack because “The chicks would be all over him for it” …so he’s a pretty nice fella (but is he single?? Brendan seemed to leave that key piece of information out). Also one thing for the rugrats coming in, if there is something that you are passionate about get involved early. The nice thing about going to such a small school is that there are fast tracks to leadership positions if you pursue them.