two summers ago mark was one of our summer interns. he was so good that we let him finish up college Back East and kept him on as a writer. he wrote from his dorm room.

then this year he graduated so we had him travel across country (writing along the way) and move here to Hollywood where he’s tearing up the joint. freakin star.

here’s my favorite thing he wrote today: “AP decides not to LOL“

the other day he reviewed the brand new BlackBerry Torch. theres video too for all the ladies who think hes cute.

but my favorite thing that he wrote this summer (if May 11 counts as Summer) was this one that he wrote for our music blog, Pop & Hiss: Justin Bieber ruined my night at Six Flags.

theres this great book, Moneyball, that i highly recommend. its about the Oakland A’s and how they are able to stay competitive without spending a lot of money on superstars and free agents.

in a way, Mark is the equivalent of that for this paper. he’s young, he’s super productive, and he doesnt demand the super high wages of a long time veteran journalist… yet.

if he did go free agent, i bet the Times would sign him. hes really that good, extremely versatile, and so nice to be around.

i only wrote one thing today. it was for the animal blog. it wasnt a fully reported out story, but it was about ligers so thats nice, i guess, if you like pictures of two day old animals whose mama is a tigress and whos daddy is a lion.