Hey look, Mattos Locos and I, several sheets to the wind at Saturday's/Sunday morning's Nouveau Riche, made Brightest Young Things. Actually, we made it for this photo, which is a much better (and more representative!) picture of me anyway, but I include this one because on the left you'll see one of my oldest and dearest friends, Colin Asher.

Today Colin won the Cushing Niles Dolbeare Media Award for his reporting on the affordable housing crisis in San Francisco. His excellent piece for the San Francisco Chronicle, in the eyes of the judges, "gave a 'face' to homeless and inadequately housed people" and demonstrated "a dedication to investigative reporting and his commitment to the exposure of an overlooked housing issue."

And to think I knew him back when we hid from cops in Christmas trees and drank tequila in my mother's basement during band practice. I credit Colin with many things, but among them is forcing me to confront a worthy question I had somehow overlooked. When I told him I was becoming a journalist in 2000, during the Targum/New York Press/college days, he asked, "What's your journalism for?" I didn't have an answer, but thought: I should really be able to respond to that. I don't have a stable answer, in all honesty, but I'm reassured of the value of the Mission by having Colin alongside.