All right, we’ll begin with a confession. We’re transplants. We fetched up here several decades ago for reasons that have been lost in the mists of time. Since then we’ve served (variously) as newspaper reporters, editors, restaurant reviewers, book critics, dishwashers, janitors, ice-cream vendors, and boardgame designers.

Who are we? We’re the guy in line at Safeway buying bratwurst and ice cream at 2 a.m. The woman drinking martinis at the end of the bar. The laptop entrepreneur at the library. We’re your oddball artists disguised as soccer moms, punk musicians masquerading as housepainters. We’re your customers, your readers, your coworkers.

Yeah, we’ve been around the block a time or two, but we haven’t lost our longstanding fascination with this crazy town—or the people who have made it what it is.