Pat Murphy, as you guys probably know, edits the local political blog San Francisco Sentinel, the publication that showed us how Chris Daly rolls, and which provided us with some stiff competition for our prestigious Pubbies award (it was of course an honor to be considered among such an august group). The combination of Murphy's elliptical Variety-style gossipy prose and the lush photography of the Sentinel's co-editor Luke Thomas always made for a fun Internet browse for local political junkies.

So everyone was a little confused earlier this week when the Sentinel suddenly disappeared from its homepage with a cheerful bright-blue message: "Site under construction -- check back later!"

What happened? Where will we get our little anti-Chris Daly screeds now? What about our daily dose of attractive pictures of Newsom supporters? Well, turns out Pat and Luke had kind of a bad breakup. Luke's side of the story after the jump -- and you can check out the new, less lushly-photographed Sentinel here. (and confidential to Pat: isn't there any better way to set this site up other than with frames? Just some friendly Pubby-award-winning advice from your friends at SFist!)

Thanks to our tipsters for sending us the word! Still no silver beads, though. Picture is from the now-discontinued CafePress mousepad of Pat Murphy and SF/Unscripted's Art Bruzzone.