It was a busy year full of good, bad and picayune for the dirty little City Paper which was gradually becoming bigger and dirtier. (Especially our ads; who knew you could get a gay menage a trois massage over the phone?) We introduced more writers and staffers that year than in any year prior. Style doyenne Margit Detweiler hopped on board as an editorial assistant. Cartoonist Vance Lehmkuhl, critic Jim Gladstone, and music scribe Jim Warren became regulars. Diane Carpentier and Susan J. Peiffer sold ads. Miguel H. Gonzalez and Julie Davids sold classifieds and wrote music reviews. Annette Earling helped out here and there. We briefly had an intern named Anomaly Romano who we felt you should know about. People named H.Y. Pocrite, Deacon Blues and Aramingo Schvantz wrote letters. Toward the end of the year our pages shrunk 1 inch vertically, but increased in overall numbers.

With all the big news in the world, City Paper circa 1990 provided a respite from news of Gulf invasions, the rising German menace and former Soviet republics yearning to be free. No way around this: It was a slow news year for the City Paper. Sure, we reported on the sad state of once-beautiful Cobb's Creek Park, pregnant mothers on cocaine, RU 486 and the shipyard (again). We ran a cover that read "The Philadelphia Parking Authority: Out of Control?" (Glad we nipped that one in the bud). But we spent a lot of time filling the feature well. Some of the things we felt warranted cover treatment: A visit to the sperm bank, people upset by the depiction of crazy people in the movie Crazy People, the rise of telecommuting, how to dream lucidly, women with guns, "Home Sweet Home Computer" and prenuptial agreements. We used more than our share of fuzzy pastel illustrations that year.

Without a full-time copy editor on staff, the psychotropic scribblings of A.D. Amorosi teetered on the edge. Several letter writers wrote to correct the spellings of their names. In introducing "Space Junk," his end-of-column notes section, Amorosi explained: "This is a lovely spot in my column in which I talk about things that I have no real information on." Aw, just like blogging.

But CP 1990's most memorable name may be that of Larry Platt. Yes, the future editor of Philadelphia Magazine covered the sports beat for CP, penning profiles of star-crossed and not-blue-collar-enough Phillies right fielder Von Hayes and pork-crossed Eagles coach Buddy Ryan. He mused on Howard Eskin and racism. He pontificated about Terry Mulholland's no-hitter. Perhaps most notably he applauded the "masterful" move by Phillies GM Lee Thomas in bringing aboard two-time MVP and former Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy, who just happened to be on the brink of a career free fall so drastic—he was washed up by 1992—they eventually named it for him.

We're counting down (or up) to our 25th anniversary. Next week: 1991! Air Pollution! Ask Isadora! Charles Barkley! City Paper Turns 10!