I’m a bit jaded right now. I’ve had the same blank look on my face since I heard the devastating news that The Bold Italic is ceasing it’s operations earlier this morning. Now, I’m just a freelancer, but I’ve written for The Bold Italic regularly since the moment  I moved back to SF following a brief stint in NY last August and it thrust me right back into the life as a San Franciscan that I love so much.

My first post for the site was called “A Hater’s Guide To Levi’s Stadium.” Shortly thereafter, I got  a crazy pitch picked up to write about “The Best Sandwiches in San Francisco,” which gave me some low-level local foodie street cred. How cool is that?! I remember e-mailing my editor to say “I love that we live in a world where posts about sandwiches are a hot ticket.” I really do.

Speaking of that editor, that’s Jennifer Maerz. I’ll miss her the most. A true professional. Do you know how rare it is just to find editors who simply confirm that they’ve received your work? Sounds simple, but Jennifer did that and more. Communicating with her regularly was a working relationship based on mutual respect. Respect for each other’s time, ongoing work flow and respect for the quality of each other’s work. She often let me know that the work I submitted didn’t suck and it kept me motivated. She’s a wonderful editor and a great manager. There were a ton of people I had the pleasure of working with at The Bold Italic that seemingly fed off of Jennifer’s approach and I can only hope to have an opportunity to work with them again in some capacity down the line.

I’ll miss the creativity, unpredictability and stickiness of everything about The Bold Italic.

I’ll miss extensive coverage of poop in San Francisco; from both humans and dogs. 

I’ll miss uniquely hard-hitting posts like a photographic work on the personal debt of San Franciscans.

I’ll miss being able to say the word “welp” in my articles and then getting an e-mail from fellow TBIers telling me how awesome that was.

I’ll miss making a lawyer joke in a post and not having it get edited out.

I’ll miss becoming one of San Francisco’s foremost experts on Pho. 

I’ll miss waking up to a brilliant April Fool’s joke that made me not hate that silly holiday anymore.

I’ll miss reporting on a story about Lucky 13 potentially closing down, only to have the hilarious Molly Sanchez one up me with one of the greatest SF gentrification gag posts ever.

I’ll miss intelligently level-headed takes on saving dive bars by Jeremy Lybarger.

I’ll miss working on crazy graphs and charts with Jessica Saia whose creative genius is incomprehensible.

I’ll miss the “Champ City” comic series by Jon Adams and Made-Up Charts that no other website did.

And in the end, I’ll just miss saying that I write for The Bold Italic. Thank you for everything team TBI.

Adrian Spinelli

@Spinelli37