With the recent updates to Secrets of the City, including MNSpeak’s reclaimed front and center position, we’ve been planning on expanding both the breadth of topics covered and the number of voices contributing to MNSpeak’s posts and comments. So now seems to be the time to transition our editorial leadership from Max Sparber to Cristina Cordova. Max has been the man for more than two years now and has brought humor, journalistic chops, arts sensibilities, and all-’round coolness to the position. We expect no less from Cristina, and welcome her back from a sort of hiatus since her earlier stint editing The Rake and Secrets of the City. To MNSpeakers: Please continue to check out Max’s stuff at his blog, Sailor Martin and MinnPost’s Daily Glean. On this site, expect to see some resurrected MNSpeak features like 7 Quick Questions and the local blog aggregator, plus regular posts by new contributors who know their stuff in areas we’ve traditionally under-covered (sports, music, out-state news, etc). To everyone else: please submit a post, keep the comments coming, or just lurk around.
Thanks, Max, and Welcome Back, Cristina
Nov 4 2009 — 10:40am
63 Reader Comments
10:46 am
Welcome (back) Cristina! Get ready for all the “MNspeak was better when Max was here” comments.
10:54 am
Woah… first… kudos to Max Sparber and his fantastic work here. Few people are cut out for this job. Welcome Cristina… this is quite exciting. Not sure if there’d be a better choice.
I’m starting to think the the editor of MNspeak is kind of like Dr. Who — and that’s a good thing, right? Welcome to season 3.
10:58 am
Or is it season 4 now? I can’t keep track. Didn’t mean to discount your tenure as editor, Matt.
11:01 am
Was Matt editor?
11:01 am
ch–cha–chaa-CHA-CHANGES!
Good luck Max.
11:02 am
Thank. And yes, I am quite ready for that, but come now, we all know MNSpeak was better when Rex was here. The first season always gets all the hype, right? But Max rode the TARDIS to new heights (so to speak). I have big shoes to fill. (No, really, have you seen Max’s feet?)
Wishing Max the best in all his endeavors. I, for one, hope he sticks around and continues to contribute his more quirky posts.
11:06 am
Was Matt editor?
Yeah, there was a post-Rex, pre-Max era… so maybe it was more of a Christmas Special than a whole season. I’ll defer to Matt’s opinion there.
11:10 am
Welcome back Cristina!
11:12 am
Of course Matt was editor. He didn’t endure all that flack for nothing!
11:13 am
Don’t be a stranger, Max.
11:15 am
I, for one, embrace change and am a bit giddy to see the next step in the evolution of MNSpeak. Max was and still is a great voice and I can’t wait to see what Cristina brings to the table.
11:27 am
Congrat’s Cristina!
11:30 am
@sornie
the internet changes?
how am i supposed to finish it then?
11:35 am
I thought your first name had to be three letters and end in “x” for this position. Can I call Cristina Crx?
11:36 am
Max – you did an amazing job and as a reader/participant over here, thank you.
Cristina – congratulations and I’m looking forward to your posts!
11:37 am
I hope there’ll be bacon! Congrats to all involved!
11:38 am
No offense taken. My tenure was short compared to Max’s.
A few stats and some history:
Rex wrote the first MNSpeak post on April 23, 2005. (Rex has submitted 784 total posts)
I took over on Jan 26, 2006 and have written 600 posts since then.
Steve Marsh had a brief tenure.
Max’s first post as editor was May 30, 2007. He is by far the most prolific MNSpeaker of all time with a total of 3,166 posts.
Since April 23, 2005, MNSpeak has had 7,266 posts and 218,065 comments.
11:39 am
Does this mean us guys have to now put the lid down?
Congrats, Christina!
And congrats, too, to Max for his exemplary tenure. I missed the Rex and Matt seasons but thoroughly enjoyed the suspense and jocularity of the Max years.
11:39 am
Thank you, Max!
Good luck, Cristina!
11:42 am
Steve Marsh was editor?
11:51 am
It was a dark dark time…
11:59 am
Well, how about that.
Thanks for all you’ve done here, Max.
Yay, Cristina!
12:03 pm
Ooh, thanks Matt. I love stats like that. Can you see who has made the most comments of all time? Or how ’bout in a given time frame?
12:07 pm
WordPress doesn’t say the number of comments each user has submitted. I’ll poke around in the database and get back to you.
12:12 pm
I’m always the last to know! Cristina…congratulations! Geez, always the last to know.
12:22 pm
wow. sorry to see max go….unless, of course, Cristina has a circle bed that she’s willing to share.
12:48 pm
Freaky three-ways on the circle bed are a MNSpeak tradition going WAAAAAAY back!
12:49 pm
Max I’ll even miss you. Best wishes.
12:49 pm
I remember when this place was run by a guy named Gern and was done entirely at bus stop shelter in spray paint. The Internet really revolutionized things.
12:56 pm
Whatever happened to Gern? Did he go to the big time with Rex?
1:02 pm
Well done and well-run, Max, even if we disagreed more than not. Good luck, keep your feet on the ground, and keep on reachin’ for the stars.
1:06 pm
He’s launched a screamcast from the same bus stop. He’s microfamous!
1:08 pm
Ok, I’m working on the circle bed.
1:21 pm
psh, I never got invited to the circle bed.
1:23 pm
There only circle bed I’ve ever seen is the one my cat sleeps in.
1:26 pm
Literally? Like right now?
“Ok, I’m working on the circle bed.”
2:29 pm
Thank you for addressing the circle bed issue. The new guy is off to a good start.
3:17 pm
Ding, Dong, the Witch is dead… sorry Max, it was the first song in my head…ok…maybe second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J—aiyznGQ
3:35 pm
That’s a rickroll, isn’t it?
3:42 pm
“Since April 23, 2005, MNSpeak has had 7,266 posts and 218,065 comments”
At least half were about ethanol and the smoking ban.
Congrats, Cristina, and thanks for all the fish, Max!
3:43 pm
@Jane: It is totally your kind of video… (So of course its a rickroll.)
3:58 pm
I think that it might be time to fire up the wagon…maybe set myself free…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq8UANA_doE
4:02 pm
It’s been a while since I posted. Still hoping the handly little toolbox returns in mew Wordpress format so we don’t have to code HTML.
4:03 pm
mew? I sound like justpkitty.
4:03 pm
this place was better when it had drupal.
4:06 pm
come on Cristina just open up all the html tags….give us back our images, hell through some javascript in for good measure..
hypercolor > Touch Me
nope….dang.
4:06 pm
when will the internets get on it and rightfully give me a hypercolor tag.
4:09 pm
Yeah! I want to post scary pictures of my kitty!
4:09 pm
Is it to early for a “your mom” joke?
4:12 pm
ahhh never.
4:14 pm
and by “my kitty” jane means a housecat that she pet sits for occasionally when the her sister-in-law goes to Boca.
4:17 pm
Boca? No, just when she goes to Vegas for a divorce.
And what’s the story with the song, ryanl? Are you saying you’ve been mistreated and will be leaving? Oh, or should I infer Max singing that tune.
4:29 pm
I was gonna post this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soO0CMnU9Bo
but i thought it was a little melodramatic.
4:48 pm
TESTING FOR CSS
4:49 pm
Nope. That doesn’t work, either.
4:50 pm
TEST
4:51 pm
Darn.
6:03 pm
Welcome to Hell, Christina!
Hee hee!
7:29 pm
The basic HTML buttons on comment and post forms are next up on my task list. Hopefully by this weekend.
8:55 pm
Change is inevitable but I still struggle with change.
11:12 pm
I’ll be drinking this large glass of Jameson in honor of you, Max.
All of the regrettable, deviant perversity that follows it I will lay at the feet of the Bartels.
7:28 am
Raindog was dreaming big last night.
7:09 pm
As a strong proponent of the “slow news” movement, I’m just finding out about this now. So it must be true. Welcome back, CRISTINA! I can’t say I’ll exactly miss MAX, since he’s kicking ass at the Glean.
For some reason REX listed me as the editor of MNspeak when it launched, which I did absolutely nothing to deserve, though I did enjoy babysitting for a stint when Matt was out globetrotting.