The Silver Splinter: A club made for the humorous

Amidst the series of Oct. bomb threats. you may have felt scared, bored, or frustrated. Few people found humor in it, as many school events were delayed. However, one group that lightened up the dark events was Blair's new satirical newspaper, The Silver Splinter. The group published their first article about the bomb threats on Oct. 13, describing the incidents as a "bomb threat festival."

Soon after that article, during the second bomb threat, they published another article about how Magnet students became "immortal tax evaders" after 9th period was canceled due to bomb threats. However, their big break would come when The Washington Post referred to their publication in an article after their article about the fake bomb threats. Blair sophomore and Silver Splinter writer Jamie Lozada-Mcbride was happy about the Silver Splinter's response.

“I thought the Silver Splinter’s article about the bomb threat festival was a pretty awesome response,” Lozada-McBride says.

Early Beginnings

Blair sophomore and the Silver Splinter's Editor-in-Chief Justin Rosentover drew his inspiration for starting the publication from another MCPS high school. After looking through the clubs at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, his brother’s school, he stumbled across their satirical newspaper, The Snitch.

“My brother went [to B-CC] and they had a satirical newspaper, and I used to read it… I thought it was hilarious… and I thought it would be really fun to have the equivalent at Blair,” Rosentover says.

Given that any Blair club also needs a sponsor, Rosentover and his co-founders reached out to their magnet chemistry teacher Erik Lodal about sponsoring the newspaper, who eagerly agreed. Lodal's casually comical and satirical personality he displays in his classes made him the perfect choice. “He was a teacher that we all knew, and he definitely has a good sense of humor… and I don’t know a lot of teachers who are really that easy going and humorous,” Rosentover says.

Although the newspaper operates self-sufficiently, Lodal sponsoring the club matched well with his desire to always indulge in satirical content. “The way I deal with stressful situations is by laughing at them… it’s, like, integral to who I am – a very sarcastic person,” Lodal says.

The Silver Splinter: A club made for the humorous

Photo: Silver Splinter members meeting to talk about their website's design.

Silver Splinter members meeting to talk about their website's design. Photo courtesy of Sadie Blain.



Article-making process

Similarly to the simplicity of finding a sponsor, the process of writing a story for a Silver Splinter member is relatively straightforward. The process typically starts with members either suggesting ideas in their group chat, or at one of their lunch meetings every other Thursday. Once ideas start pouring, Rosentover and other members decide on the best stories to start writing.

“We have a discord channel, you post an idea, someone reads it and tries to think if it’s funny or not, and then you just go ahead and write it,” Rosentover says.

Improvements

Despite having a hugely successful first semester, the publication's members see room for improvement. First, their small size has hindered the publication from chasing some of their goals, which include printing a magazine-style copy of their top-performing articles of the year. Currently, they only have 15 to 20 members.

Graphics editor Nate Bingenheimer wishes that the Silver Splinter would have more members. "I’ve been hoping that at the end of the year we’ll be able to publish a magazine with a bunch of our top articles… I definitely think we need more people writing and editing,” he says.

Club Appeal

Although the club has only been around for around five months, it has still had major success that would appeal to Blazers looking for a club to express humor. Recently during the yearbook club photos, all the members decided to wear matching fedoras.

Additionally, when asked about what the Silver Splinter does, Rosentover humorously says, “We provide high quality hard hitting news to our trillions of viewers.”