25 Years of the Stranger Oct 12, 2016 at 4:00 am

How It All Started

Comments

1
I hope Dislocation had the good sense to move out of his parents' house and stop taking their money. Back then, not ten years later.

Some dislocation might be necessary and useful in such instances.

Wouldn't we just love to read a follow up from all those LWs? Unless of course the letters were hypotheticals written by the Stranger staff.
2
"Having companionship on Friday and Saturday nights are two of the top reasons to put up with being in a relationship." - Ha! Great one Dan.
And yeah, wonder where he got the initial letters from. Hmm!
3
I'm a little curious as to whether Dan would answer those questions the same way today. (I imagine so, but still.)
4
I hope these letters are real, because I really want to believe this was Dan's first exposure to Dungeons & Dragons.
5
Thanks for this! Always wanted to read the very first column, as the archive doesn't go back that far.

@ 3 - I think he's more thoughtful now than he was in his earlier years, so possibly not.
6
Not long after this was published, I wandered into Cafe Roma on the Ave and stumbled across Savage Love for the first time. I knew it would be a hit - the premise of a disinterested 3rd party was brilliant, the execution was smart and irreverent - but you took it further than I ever could have imagined.

Congrats and thanks.
7
@5: He's a better writer now, that's for sure. Practice, and all that.

@6: Hey, Seandr--long time no see. Good to see your evil psycho bunny again.
8
Anyone know when the SF Weekly (or maybe Bay Guardian?) started to run Savage Love? I was definitely reading it in Berkeley in the early 1990's, then in the Stranger in Seattle in the mid-1990s, then in The Onion's AV Club online and for years now on the Stranger's website.

Luke Perry is this month's cover boy on AARP and most of Dan's letters now come from people who were born after 1991. Sigh.
9
ever read one of Dan's Savage Love reposts and want an update?
10
@8: I don't have an answer to your question, but I first started reading Savage Love in the SF Weekly and/or the Bay Guardian (it ran in both) in the late 1990s. I have been in Berkeley all along. We may have been standing in the same line at Peet's two decades ago.
11
I lived in SF from early '92 to mid '94, and Savage Love was in one of the free weeklies for a chunk of that time. Probably kinda sorta roughly half, but I really don't remember specifically
12
I have great memories reading Savage Love in the Village Voice, late night on the subway heading home to Brooklyn. Hard to believe that's almost 25 years ago.
13
The last answer is particularly ironic, since the whole column is a lie: he later said that all the letters were made up at first.
14
@10 Nocute: I was in Berkeley, mostly, '79 to '95. Most often I'd read Savage Love with my frozen yogurt at Yogurt Park on Southside. My other in-public titillation was reading the personal ads in the same weekly papers (yes, children, personal ads were once printed on dead trees). The most memorable said "F seeking M, I'm about to get married and I want one last fling - this is no strings attached and has no possibility of leading to anything else." and I thought, Wow, she's going to get a lot of calls! A few years later, I learned who placed the ad (her BFF posted it for her). And yes, she got a LOT of calls!
15
Cool! I recall reading Savage when he was in The Onion and it only ran here in Madison. Very informative for a high schooler.
16
@14 It was a real loss when personals stopped being printed in the paper. The whole magic idea of "it just caught my eye on the back cover of the Stranger" is lost.

(Am I remembering right, that the actual back cover was I Saw U at one time, not Rad Duke Plumber Zan and later pot ads?)
17
WAIR sounds like ze's not spending weekends alone at all, just later weekend nights, unless they eat dinner really early. Dan's advice still stands, but I find the characterization of weekend evenings as the entire weekend odd, since for me, the primary difference between the work week and weekend is that my DAYS are free on weekends, while evenings are free all week. Anyone with similar problems these days could also suggest daytime gaming sessions or weeknight gaming sessions (though those would probably have to end earlier) as other alternatives in looking for a compromise.
18
Happy 25 Year Anniversary, Savage Love!!
Thanks, Dan--what a treat down Memory Lane.
I especially love how some LWs are from Seattle
neighborhoods--i.e.: Ravenna, Capitol Hill.
Here's to another 25 years!
19
I fondly remember reading the printed Savage Love, cherishing every Wednesday's newly published SL column---and still do online. For my own curiosity and amusement I used to browse the personals in The Stranger in the 90's while enrolled at AIS post-U.S. Navy. Some opening lines in the personals were pretty unforgettably wild.
Thanks for the memories!

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