It pains me to visit my old haunt, latimes.com/schoolme these days.
Ever since I shipped out to OC, it's occupied a cold place in cyberspace, sitting in suspended animation. But even in its stagnant state, the blog, which I co-authored with Pulitzer winner Bob Sipchen, provided a resource for folks with hardball questions about education. The magnet schools archive (a freebie column by the dynamic Sandra Tsing Loh) and other features were things parents came to look for.
Alas, it looks like they're tearing it down. It's nothing personal, I know. Another day, another fad blog at the LAT. But it still twists my innards as I check back every day, morbidly watching them dismantle my baby.
For weeks, I've fielded questions from people wanting to know why why why School Me had to die. Today, I can finally give a complete answer. Besides my move to the Weekly, my former editor's been named editor-in-chief of Sierra Magazine – the press release went out today.
The Bay Area publication was courting him for months, and rightly so. I can't think of a bigger outdoors-man than Sipchen – who suckered me into a Utah river rafting family vacation a mere month into my School Me stint. (Between the sleeping bags crawling with bugs, peeing in the river and enduring Bob's premature Christmas carols, I'm still not sure how I survived.)
I'll miss ya, Bob. But we both found something cool to do at the end of the day and will wreak havoc from our respective posts.
