The Scoop on Luke Taylor: From Paris (IL) to The News-Gazette

What makes someone want to be a journalist? We dig deep into that story and more with local reporter, Parisian, and scary opossum, Luke Taylor!

Luke is a writer for The News Gazette. I met him when he started coming to the Community Coalition meetings to cover them for the paper. The meetings are a good place to get to know what is going on locally and to meet the leaders of the local organizations that are doing the hard work to make our community better. I told him about It's My Treat and asked if he would be interested in being a guest on the show (Is it a show?), and he was one of the quickest to get back to me with a solid yes.

He said that he hadn't been to a lot of the classic establishments in the area, so he wanted to try one out. So, why not go with the oldest restaurant in the area, Sam's Cafe in Downtown Champaign. Not sure if it is really the oldest, but that's what they said in The News Gazette, so who am I to question it. Since Luke had never been there, I, of course, suggested Gus' Famous French Toast. So we both went with that. If you look at the pictures in this post, you will see how much we liked it, because both our plates were almost empty by the time I snapped the picture. (either that, or I just completely forgot to take a picture earlier. I am so bad at remembering that.) Well, picture or not, I'm still saying that Sam's has the best French Toast that I have ever had. It is so much different than regular French Toast that some people might now agree with my assessment, but with a last name like Paris, why would you question my French Toast rating credentials?

One person who may be able to claim a more authentic Parisian perspective is today's guest, Luke. Don't know if you know this about him, but he grew up in Paris! Can you believe that? He's from Paris, IL. (You thought I was going to say Paris Texas didn't you?) If you could see me writing this, you would see how excited I am by that. I have always wanted to visit Paris, IL (last name is Paris after all). Luke recommended a burger place called The Old Glass Shop. Now that I have a destination, that Paris trip is going straight to the top of my next destination list.

Forgot to ask him if he had ever been to Paris France, but he did mention a memorable trip to Ireland. He said Giant's Causeway was a beautiful place to visit, and they have hexagon shaped basalt columns and a gorgeous view of the ocean. I offered up the opinion that the hexagon columns were probably formed by the Scarlet Witch or Agatha Harkness, but I don't think Luke was buying that explanation, Ha. Best thing about the trip was that he got to spend time with his sister who was traveling over there for a job, so he was able to hitch onto the trip with her and they spent some time together there and in London. What a great trip, and what a great memory.

Look at this, I've already written five paragraphs and haven't even addressed that central thesis of this conversation. Pretty sure I am going to get thrown out of the Inverted Pyramid society for not doing it right. So, the question at hand is why would someone want to be a journalist? My first guess is the enormous salaries and fame, but my experience working at a journalism school has taught me that that is not the case. So, if it isn't the money, why would you want to do it? It is probably a different answer depending on who you ask, but for Luke, he likes to tell people stories and dig deep to report the news.

Sometimes a story you write can make a big change. Luke is most proud of a story that did just that, when he was a student at Eastern Illinois University. He spent a lot of time doing a deep dive into the accessibility issues that students were having at his school. The sidewalks had issues, some of the buildings had ADA issues, and it was difficult or impossible for people in wheelchairs to get around. It may not seem like a big deal because there was only one full time wheelchair user at the school, but that makes you wonder how many wheelchair using students, faculty and staff chose not to work for or attend the university because of the issue. The story got some push back, but eventually the university had to address it and make some changes. So, if you want to make a change in the world, maybe a career in journalism is an option for you.

But let's go back a bit and track Luke's history to see why he chose journalism in the first place. How much he liked a copy editor computer game when he was in school should have been a sign, but it wasn't until later that he made the decision. I'm going to go with his love of Newsies and Spiderman as the primary factors in his decision, but he said that what really made up his mind was working on the school newspaper at Eastern. Getting the real-world working experience of reporting and writing articles made him give up his fallback plan of becoming a lawyer and instead focus full time on journalism. I am sure the $9 that he got for each article he wrote, or later the $300 a month that he made as an editor swayed that decision, too. Ha.

His first job out of college is working at The News Gazette. He has only been there for around a year and a half but has already seen a lot of changes at the paper. Some of the veteran journalists have left, so that has given the younger journalist an opportunity to do more things and take on new challenges. That is nice to work with a group of young people with a lot of energy, but I'm sure it was nice to be able to work with some of the older ones who had more experience and could help mentor you as you move along.

As always, it is looking like this post is getting pretty long, so I should probably finish it up. But don't worry, I haven't forgotten that I called Luke a scary opossum in the introduction. I am sure you want to know the story about that one, but I am just going to leave it to your imagination. Ha. Actually, I'm not going to do that. That would be so mean.

So, here's the story: When he got to Sam's this morning, Luke mentioned that he was super tired because he was working late last night at the Necrosis Haunted House in Rantoul. He is playing one of the scary monsters that you might encounter along the way. His character wears an opossum mask and scares people at the swamp. We did have a discussion on whether opossums are cute or if they are scary. Luke argued that they were cute and good for controlling bugs and pest. I agreed with the pest control benefits but couldn't get to agreeing that they were cute. If you have ever had one hiss at you with their big sharp teeth, you know they are scary. If you don't believe me, look up opossum hiss on YouTube.

Thank you so much, Luke. It was great to get to know more about you. It was great to get to Sam's and have their French Toast, and it was great to have a good conversation.

And one last thing, shout out to Amy Beth Myers (DJ ABM). She was working at Sam's today, and we got to talking about C-Street, her DJ'ing and her plans to open up a new LGBT bar in Champaign early next year. I don't know her, but I am sure I got a few drinks from her back in the Monday Goth/Industrial nights back in the day. It was great to remember some of the good times, and I'm looking forward to what she is going to put together in the future.