Editors' Note

Like the comings and goings of the McRib, time works in mysterious ways.

Back in 2007, your editors both graduated from an all-boys Jesuit school in Fairfield, CT., where one spent most of his time golfing, and the other ran up and down hills. We had lockers in close proximity, and our initials are inversions of each other: LTK, KTL. Now we’re co-editors.

Just as when James Franco wrote an edit for the Wall Street Journal, this can only be fate.

But the magazine is surprisingly free of Jesuit influence, much to the dismay of Dan Brown. Instead, this month Towerview takes on the big issues, the top culture and the things that make Duke tick.

First, the big issues. Ryan Brown gives a look into the world of extreme picky eating, defined by processed foods and the oppression of grilled cheese sandwiches. But a team of Duke researchers is working to help those who suffer from the disorder.

We open with Maddie Lieberberg, who gets even with snow for the havoc it has wreaked on her hometown of New York City, and Alex Klein speaks to Wine Authorities’ Craig Heffley, who’s on a mission to upend the wine world.

Then three of our globe-trotting juniors put into words the mania of returning from abroad. There are lions, libraries and self-realization, though not all at the same time.

Rounding out the front of the book, Kevin Lincoln takes on the cultural monolith that is Black Swan and, in a separate article, goes inside Duke Libraries’ secret weapon, the Library Service Center. Plus, Tong Xiang profiles Duke’s newest Rhodes Scholar, the seemingly tireless Jared Dunnmon.