Housing Complex and Cheap Seats are not on the same page. Cheap Seats is on Page 14. This is my responsibility; sorry, all. (Thanks to genius Twitter friend julesdc for pointing this out.)

But we did have to wait outside for 10 minutes while things got checked out.

The new owners of the Waco Tribune-Herald, a newspaper run for the last three and a half decades by Cox Enterprises, greeted their Central Texas readers with a note on Saturday to explain why in God's name they would want to run a newspaper in this day and age, when, as we all know, newspapers are dying.

As it turns out, God may well be behind it: The paper, from here on out, will print the words "In God we trust" on its front page.

Here, in part, via Romenesko, is the introductory message from Clifton Robinson, chairman of Robinson Media Co.:

This is the first edition of the Trib under the ownership of the Clifton Robinson family. The new experience of newspaper ownership is exhilarating, exciting and entered into with certain trepidation, remembering quotes of “Stick with what you know” and “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

... The newspaper business is currently undergoing what can best be described as the perfect storm: The failing U.S. economic conditions coupled with the digital age have caused advertising revenues and subscriptions to decrease.

Change is the byword of our modern society, and such is the case of the Trib. It's time for a change, and hopefully our values and opinions will be well received by our advertisers and readers. It will come about slowly but surely with the first change being printed on this paper's front page, where it will remain during the tenure of our ownership: In God we trust.

Clearly, that's the answer to all of journalism's woes: Get God to back your enterprise.

But more importantly: What declaration might City Paper put on its front cover? In whom - in what - do we trust?

I joined the Washington City Paper family this week, replacing the beloved Jule Banville, the recently departed asst. managing editor and D.C. brunch-culture-hater who was kind enough to leave in her office some very important things, such as an AP Stylebook, two dictionaries and a bottle of Tylenol. She left a rotten banana, too, but I think that was a mistake.

Please allow me to make this, my inaugural City Desk blog post, an introduction of sorts.

I come to you via reporting stints both near and far. Looking back, I’d have to say the highlight of my first journalism job, in 1995, was the time I asked a Prince George’s County public information officer out of gruff-cop central casting for an update on the condition of a homicide victim ("She's still dead!" he laughed, and then said it again for good measure, causing me to turn a shade of purple I have tried very hard to avoid since.).

Read More "Day Three at City Paper: Meet, Well, Me" »

Today I leave the best job I ever had, and that counts a brief stint at Trader Joe's where I tried to get health care after knocking over several cases of Two Buck Chuck with my ass. As asst. managing editor at Washington City Paper for the past two and half years, my job has been mostly plumbing, behind the walls, keeping things running without a nasty backup. But one cannot be merely a plumber and still be employed at an award-winning alternative weekly decimated by its ownership in the digital age. One has to blog.

I know all of you loyal City Desk readers have been following my posts with great vigor. And, so, as my parting gift to you, I give you the highlights of my tenure here (critters, baking, dudes living in their basements, Michael Phelps, D.C. brunch culture [FYI: It still sucks], and did I mention Michael Phelps?), as well as a super sappy goodbye.

Read More "And With a Heavy Heart, I Leave You. OR: Suck It, Haters." »

Craigslist killed the value of alternative newspapers? Bah. Washington City Paper has never been pricier than in this ad:

washington, DC craigslist > northern virginia > for sale / wanted > collectibles

Marion Barry City Paper (Incredible Headline!) - $20 (Falls Church)

Love him or hate him, can you believe the incredible headline of the Washington City Paper? Surely one of the most outrageous pages of newsprint to come out the Washington D.C area.
May become a collectors item, they went fast from downtown newsracks, I was lucky enough to get three. Serious buyers only!

• Location: Falls Church
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1265399825

Outside City Paper offices, 3:41 p.m.

Read More "Photos: Thursday, Before The Press Conference" »

We had some fun yesterday. Hope you enjoyed it.

You may notice some changes to the City Paper website today, most notably the removal of the events/restaurants/movies search widget on the right hand side of the page. We've been debating this change for a while now and looking at the usage stats, and we decided that the widget was doing more to create visual clutter on unrelated pages than to provide good search functionality. We've also removed a few other pieces that were cluttering up the page.

The goal is to create more focused sections. You can search for restaurants under eats, movies under movies, music under music, and theater under theater.

Read More "City Paper Website Update" »

With the Washington Post now soliciting sources via Craigslist, we'd hate to be late to the party.

With this in mind, and in the spirit of UGC, I'm putting out a call for factoids/tirades/anecdotes relating to public urination in and around the District.

Ever been arrested? Ever spotted for a friend? Ever ratted someone out? Ever squirmed your way, bladder full of empathy, through a performance of Urinetown?

If any of the above applies to you, please email me. You'll be richly rewarded, most likely in the form of a karmic exemption from kidney stones.

Ignore yesterday's glass fully empty post about no City Paper Christmas Party for 2008!

Looks like we are going the AIG route after all! I have it on the highest possible authority that invites will be going out later today for a Dec. 17 company bash, to be held at some local drinkery.

Loose Lips: Get Fenty to RSVP! Tradition!

Everybody else still on the payroll: Get out your earplugs, lampshades and buckets. Tradition!

Deflation! Everyone's freaking out about it. Basically, deflation means you are getting poorer for a different reason than you were last month. Unless you don't have any debt or have liquid assets, an across-the-board decline in prices doesn't matter, because you can't afford anything and anyone who can will wisely wait for prices to go lower. Also there is no more money to borrow and if you have a European grandparent, this might be a good time to look into skipping town.

But here's how we'll be sitting pretty: Our paper is free! That's right, no liquidity trap for City Paper readers, because according to my reading of economics, unless we figure out a way to pay you to pick up copies, in a deflationary economy we can't lose money. In a month you might be able to fly to Sao Paulo for $4.95 plus a toy in its original packaging, but City Paper will be worth EXACTLY as much as it is now. And all those poor suckers standing around Washington Post boxes waiting for the price to go back down 15 cents, whaddya think they're gonna be reading? OH YEAH! Wait, put down that Examiner...

Photo by Flickr user fiveforefun

As of yesterday, City Paper's office at 2390 Champlain Street, NW is no longer a two-story operation. (The idea is to save on rent while effecting, ahem, a "more perfect union" between edit and web.) So now the old editorial desks languish on the second floor—empty but not forgotten—and the CP staff in toto has divvied up the third floor: the writers, the editors, the salesmen salespeople, the marketeers, the web folks, the ad coordinators, the classifieds folks, and the operations team.  Lion lying down with the lamb, as it were. Or, you know, cats and dogs living together. Whichever you prefer.

Either way, the end of last week was one massive game of musical chairs, as staffers boxed their personal and professional effects, unearthed a few oddities (Cherkis' first cover story! Amanda Ripley's alarm clock! A headless photo of David Carr!), and reminisced. A stirring scene.

Watch it below.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

So the City Paper may be part of a bankrupt chain and we may be guilty of a bankrupt form of alternative journalism, but we can still sell burgers, dammit!

The "Free Burger Day" coupon in this week's issue has generated a long line of freeloaders today looking to cash in at Z-Burger, the Tenleytown joint that hopes to, one day, rival the Five Guys chain for sheer volume of restaurants. David Walker, City Paper's advertising sales director, tried to stop by and order himself a free ground-beef sammie. The line was so long, he went to McDonald's instead. (As far as pure beef flavor goes, I'd argue there's not much drop off there.)

It's not too late to take advantage of the offer. It goes til 10 p.m., when Z-Burger closes. But after you bums finish off your burger, you should thank Walker and account executive Andy Minarik, who are responsible for this freebie. When Z-Burger's owner was fishing around for ideas on how to advertise his budding chain, the pair suggested Free Burger Day. He agreed. He may be regretting it now. I don't know. I tried calling over there, but the dude on the line essentially hung up on me.