The Stranger (newspaper)
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The Stranger is a weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Tim Keck, its first issue came out on September 23, 1991. In its early days, the paper was single sheet wrapped around a wad of coupons for local businesses. The paper has regularly published work by excellent writers such as Charles D'Ambrosio and Charles Mudede. As of 2004, the paper's editor-in-chief is Dan Savage, who made his name writing the sarcastic and sometimes inflammatory sex column Savage Love. The paper's staff includes actor/monologist David Schmader, who writes a rather twisted "news of the week" column called "Last Days"; when he runs low on space, the latter days of the week are liable to say "Nothing happened today." Aside from the excellent coverage of Seattle City Council politics, the Stranger is known to be highly ironic, sometimes to the point of juvenile flipness.
Stranger ombudsman, A. Birch Steen, supposedly a former OSHA Board of Governors member but almost certainly a fictional character, writes acerbic criticism of the paper. Originally these were from a column hidden in the back, then from their own table of contents. (At other times, the table of contents has been written as if by a breathless teenage intern.) Typically, these appear only in the print edition: the online table of contents is straightforward.
Seattlites on the dating scene are surely familiar with the personals section, which have been assisting Boys Seeking Boys, Girls Seeking Boys, and every other combination possible, since the 90's. Another popular feature is the "I Saw U" section, where missed chances can be recovered by placing an ad for "that girl in blue on the #7 bus" or one's favorite barista.
The Stranger is also the main chronicle of the Seattle music scene, supporting such notable bands, both signed and unsigned, as Alien Crime Syndicate, AltaRego, The Beautiful Mothers, Blood Brothers, Charlie Drown, Common Heroes, Dangermart, The Divorce, Dog Bone Sanctuary, Dolour, Drop Six, Drown Mary, The Myriad, Peepshow, Point One, Rishloo, River Red, Room Zero, Ruby Doe, Second Coming, Supersuckers, Turn to Fall, Undrride, Utterance, Vendetta Red, Vindaloo, Visqueen, Windowpane, XXX Audio, Zeke and The Zero Points.
External links
- Official site (http://www.thestranger.com)
- The Stranger (http://www.seattlewiki.org/wiki/The_Stranger) on SeattleWiki.