T u r n s
Starting Up
B
by Dave Gendell, founding editor
y mid-summer of 1995 it seemed that anything was possible. Mary Iliff and I had grown up just a couple of miles apart near Annapolis and knew each other through sailing circles. We were just a few years out of college, and she taught math and coached at The Key School while I worked at The Capital newspaper and as a boat captain. We were both working on the staff at Rags magazine in spring 1995 when the magazine’s owners gently but abruptly closed the doors.
56 September 2015 spinsheet.com
All around us, the old world was yielding to the new. In May, off San Diego, Team New Zealand’s Black Magic trounced Stars & Stripes. I watched Black Magic cross the final finish line from about 100 yards away and later that day composed and sent my first email. In July, Amazon, a startup website none of us had heard of yet, sold its first book. In early August, Netscape stock debuted as a tremendously successful Initial Public Offering. That same day, Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia unexpectedly died. All around us, the old seemed to be stepping aside to let the new push through. 1995 was a fruitful and memorable summer. We were inspired. I clearly remember that there was no panic and no drama. For me, there was simply a gradual realization that the world was sending a message: “We should start a magazine on our own.” I walked the idea around town