Tom Scocca was the “Off the Record” columnist and media editor for the New York Observer before decamping to Beijing. Before that, he was an editor and writer for Washington City Paper and Baltimore’s City Paper. A Baltimore native, he lives in New York with his wife and son (a Beijing native). He writes the “Scocca” blog for Slate and is the managing editor of Deadspin, and his byline appears regularly in the Boston Globe and the Awl.