Rumblings from the Famished Underbelly of New Paltz?

It appears, for all purposes, that Bilysse struck gold with the "Will to Survive" concept. About the only topic it rules out is, well, dead people. Or people who want to kill themselves. Personally, I find such people - the dead, the dying, the lost, loveless, hopeless - interesting.

I'm not being altogether serious. But really, the more I break down the "Will to Survive" concept in my head, the more it just starts to look like classic human interest - the best of which has always contained the core element of struggling against the odds, or against the grain, or despite better judgment, etc.

That said, these are still fine story ideas. It's no good reinventing the wheel, if the new version doesn't turn. What Bilysse seems to be suggesting is that we do typical feature-type reporting, with a predicated emphasis upon hard-luck stories. In which case we should probably not have little brightly-colored bubbles all over our layout.

What could really make this idea go zing! is if, along with our gritty little pieces about how hard it is to scrape a living together around here (and it is), we consistently offer advice on how to survive more efficiently, and how to help those whose survival seems most imperiled.

As a devoted cynic, I am enamored with the dark psychological depths that a project like this could lead us into. But is the rest of the class prepared to join me (and maybe Bilysse, and maybe Lisa) in this journey to the jagged edge of existence?