Note

Image caption: Dale Keiger
Editor

I am reputed to be a bit of a grump.

My boss has said she finds this charming, but I'm not sure that's a widely shared sentiment. In my defense, I think some people misread my personality. I can be dour, I suppose, occasionally mordant, maybe less than chipper. But I prefer to think of my sour attitude as evidence of a deep, probing, and serious intellect and the outcome of my courageous refusal to avert my gaze from the hard truths of life.

Yeah, all right, so I'm not Mr. Sunshine. But whether or not it's written on my face when I'm in the office, I have an awful lot of fun producing Johns Hopkins Magazine, and that was very much the case this time around. I am grinning right now as I present to you, dear readers, The Fun Issue, in which we have taken our sober, ever-so-earnest magazine that strives with every issue to exemplify an institution of the most serious intent, dressed it up in shorts and a T-shirt, and put a drink in its hand.

And yep, we had great fun writing about people who are funny for a living, and people who make music with a washing machine, and intercollegiate varsity kiddie pool wading, and the neuroscience of fun. (Hey, c'mon, you know we had to do that last one.) We enlisted Johns Hopkins archivist Jim Stimpert to find images of campus hijinks through the decades—don't miss the university banjo club—and solicited essays from some of our favorite alumni writers. Plus we asked you, our readers, to send in your memories of fun at Johns Hopkins. You did not disappoint.

So please, sit back, start reading, and enjoy yourselves. We sure did.

Dale Keiger
Editor