By Jonathon S. Platt
News editor

If recent studies are correct, the Lariat staff is as good as gone.

Research by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and the American Journal of Epidemiology indicates that sitting for over six hours a day both increases one’s risk to colon, endometrial and lung cancer and is nearly as bad for one’s health as a pack of cigarettes.

At the Lariat, we sit all day long. We consume news while in chairs, hold meetings while in chairs, write and edit stories while in chairs, we talk on the phone while in chairs, design the newspaper while in chairs and tell a bunch of random stories after deadline while in chairs.

We’re basically bums.

Along with paranoia of our impending death from sitting, some of us develop chronic back pain. Luckily for me, our assistant city editor Jenna Press volunteered to be my personal masseuse.

Little did you know that the Lariat doesn’t just produce a paper, we’re also producing senior citizens – if we’re lucky to live that long – who are always grabbing and complaining about their back.