Short on cash but with plenty of time to spare, a group of dot com bust refugees launched The Black Table (www.blacktable.com) in January 2003 with the intention of bringing a dose of jaded cynicism to the Web. After a year of daily updates, The Black Table has become one of the smarter, more edgy sources of original content on the Internet. Take, for instance, its weekly reader-submitted reviews of everything and anything, known as the Black List. (One review gives "Charlize Theron in 'Monster'" an A+. Another pans "People who don't wear hats when it's freezing" with a D+.) With its unpredictable feature stories and snarky recurring columns, The Black Table is everything you wish you said, but knew you were thinking all along.
- MICHAEL VALLEBUONA
