Where's Laurel Wellman?
Is it too early for San Francisco 1999 nostalgia? The NASDAQ was peaking, IPs were O-ing, and those dark blue button-down shirts were so in? Remember when they said the only way you could get an apartment was if you could offer your landlord stock options? Remember the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project? Well, in these wintry economic climes, we miss the go-go 99s -- and we especially miss the ace reporter that covered the whole thing for the SF Weekly and then the Chron, the inestimable Ms. Laurel Wellman.
You may remember Laurel Wellman for her pieces for Dog Bites about "Nestor Makno," -- or maybe you didn't start reading her column until she covered the Great Gonzalez-Newsom-off of ought-three for the Chron. And then -- suddenly -- nothing. Wellman filed a few interview pieces in 2004 and then, much to our dismay, she disappeared entirely from the Chron.
So where is Laurel now? We do some research for you, after the jump.
From our commenters and other mail we get, you guys miss Laurel too! So where is she?
So we did what everyone does -- we Googled. Yikes, 68,000 hits! Sifting through this information glut, we thought maybe she was in Thailand, or she was living large off her Chronicle Books contract. (Ironic, no?)
Interesting -- but this still doesn't answer the question: where is Laurel now? Man, if Google can't help you -- what else can you do? Hmmmm.... we were stalled. We wept a little. We posted about Chris Daly.
....and then -- Ding! Howzabout the miracle of email? This "reporting" thing we pride ourselves on not doing? So -- we put in some inquiries on behalf of the 'Fist, and -- ta da! -- have found out that (drum roll) Laurel has moved back to her native Canada.
No way -- really? All of us who longed to do the same after the election tip our hats to you, Laurel! (Man, Canada is so friggin' in these days!)
Laurel, please! Let us know how you are! We miss you! We desperately attempt -- and always fail -- to emulate your breezy Yay Area style out here on the Internet wasteland! Call! Write! And please please -- come back! Vancouver's gain is our loss.
Read Laurel's Dog Bites pieces here, and her Chron pieces here.