User talk:That70sdesperado

The Falconer is the school newspaper for Torrey Pines High School, located in San Diego, California. The paper is known to be a very prestigious high school newspaper, as it has done very well in national high school journalism conventions. Most recently, the paper placed seventh at the Spring 2006 JEA/NSPA convention in San Francisco, and eighth place at the Fall 2005 convention in Chicago. It also finished first in the Spring 2004 convention in San Diego.

The Falconer is printed in broadsheet paper size, the standard size for most professional newspapers, and it typically runs in sections. Up until the 2003-2004 year, the paper printed in tabloid size. It was the ambitions of the next year's staff, headed by Editor-In-Chief LeeAnn Suen and assistant EIC/Design Editor Matt Franks, that resulted in the newspaper's size expansion. The broadsheet trend has continued ever since.

The editor-in-chief for the 2006-2007 year is Andrew Greenberg, the previous year's copy editor. The other editors include Jennifer Yang (Assistant EIC/Design Editor), Jeff Cubbison (Managing Editor), Max Sutton-Smolin (Copy Editor), Lucy Yu (Business Manager), Roxanna Aftahi (Public Relations Manager), Amanda DeMarco (News Editor), Amy Fan (Opinion Editor), Jaimie Vaillancourt (Feature Editor), Allison Morris (Co-Focus Editor), Liz Smith (Co-Focus Editor), Sam Reiss (Entertainment Editor), Cameron Zick (Sports Editor), Savannah Lake (Backpage Editor), Davia Craumer (Photo Editor), and Irina Potapova (Art Editor).

The current staff adviser is Mia Boardman Smith, also the school's Yearbook and Literary Magazine adviser. Smith took over advising duties in 2006 after the departure of previous adviser Olaina Anderson.

The Aura of Samy Amanatullah It is a widely known fact that quite possibly the greatest staff member of all time was Staff Writer Samy Amanatullah, who was a member from 2001-2004. Amanatullah was the feature editor during the 2002-2003 year, but left the next editor race empty-handed due to the inclusion of pornography in his portfolio for Special Section editor. Instead, Amanatullah spent his senior year as a staff writer. Known for writing an average of five to eight stories per issue, Amanatullah notoriously wrote such profound feature pieces centering on complex teen issues such as recreational drug use, depression, suicide, violence, and personal angst. His opinion pieces were highly political ones that threatened the "status-quo" of the TPHS campus. Amanatullah also wrote a deep feature column titled "e pur si mouve," French for "it still moves." His presence has since become something of a myth. Current Managing Editor Jeff Cubbison, who was a freshman during Amanatullah's last year, describes him as "the reason why I love journalism and writing." His stunning writing style, work ethic, and dedication to the staff led to his being rewarded the staff MVP award.

Current Staff Editor-in-Chief: Andrew Greenberg Assistant EIC: Jennifer Yang Managing Editor: Jeff Cubbison Business Manager: Lucy Yu Public Relations Manager: Roxanna Aftahi Copy Editor: Max Sutton-Smolin News Editor: Amanda DeMarco Opinion Editor: Amy Fan Feature Editor: Jaimie Vaillancourt Focus Editors: Allison Morris and Liz Smith Entertainment Editor: Sam Reiss Sports Editor: Cameron Zick Backpage Editor: Savannah Lake Photo Editor: Davia Craumer Art Editor: Irina Potapova Staff Writers: Nayoung Ahn, Christine Auwarter, Katherine Bai, Blake Faulkner, Vivan Feig, Allie Ferguson, David Gao, Chelsea George, Paige Miller, Sara Miller, Michael Pappalardo, Jassmine Rabii, Amy Scarano, Steven Wilfong, Ellen Willis-Norton, Brandon Young, Phillip Zhang