A letter to my friend at the crappy local newspaper.

Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:08:14 -0400
From: aw333@columbia.edu
To: ******@sun-sentinel.com
Subject: Good Lord. Maybe it's good that print news is dying.

Well, I suppose it was time for the obligatory annual "Hi ******, remember me?" email anyway. I was just talking with ^^^^^ and +++++, both of whom you may not remember... I'd caught up with them at last summer's Ely HS 10-year reunion. I went so you wouldn't have to, and believe me when I say it was a truly Christlike sacrifice to be there.

Anyway, we were all sitting around the other day, sopping up brews and inveighing against the dumbification of the Scum Sentinel. It's no big surprise to me, since I worked at the Tallahassee Democrat for the last two years and got to see Knight Ridder and then Gannett gut a newspaper-of-record just to try the whole "blogs and neighborhood drivel" angle. (We should compare notes sometime. Ask me about my time as the "Hungry Hungry Hipster," the paper's pop-culture blogger. Irony: Anyone who looks at me can immediately discern that I am never hungry and rarely hip.)

But after bashing Earl Maucker and a fair number of other Tribune peons for an hour or so, I said, "That's all well and good, but as long as they save a place for ******'s pithy movie reviews and stories, I'll keep my subscription."

So. Then. What's with all this AP wire stealing your space in "Showtime"? What's with the online video review of Shrek III? (We tried that at the Dem, too... there's nothing sadder than a bunch of talented writers looking uncomfortable and untalented as TV anchors. No offense to colleagues of yours, but I'd buy your newspaper, if it guaranteed *never* seeing video of Mike Mayo and Tom Jicha.) Tell me, my gifted 10th-grade crush, that you have a resume all set up and ready to fax, because this "community news" screed clearly doesn't know what to do with the few good folks they have.

But enough shop talk. Real reason for writing: I've got just a few months in town before returning to grad school in Manhattan and think it's high time for a reunion. How about it? Would anybody in the Sentinel building miss you if you slipped out for lunch? (More likely they'd just replace you with a panel of old ladies from Sunrise who'd rail on about the unnecessary growth of adult situations in big-studio comedies.) Go ahead, take a chance. I'll even introduce you to the missus.

Seriously, though. Hope all is well with you, and hope to hear from you soon.

- Adam

P.S. remember Tatiana? She says hello. She also says you should read Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", but I'm going to overrule her on that one.