Wow wrote:
In reply to:
Ahhh, so good to know there's a kindred spirit out there. When I had an idea about how a feature could be laid out I was instructed to "go talk to the guys in makeup."
Starting out in hot type and being on the rotation to make up pages I worked with type that was upside down and backwards to me ! (You're smiling and nodding, aren't you?) It was not easy to learn to read that way but a very handy skill for a reporter. I can still remember the relief when the chases were locked and the forms were ready to go. Whew! It was only the kindness and generosity of "the guys in makeup" that I didn't make more of a fool of myself in the early day than I did.
Ah, reporters and editors. The bane of our existence as printers. Saving your grace, most of them were abysmally ignorant of the English language (or any other that I could discern). I was a machine typographer (linotype machines) and I seemed to spend half my life trotting upstairs to the sub editors' office to argue the toss over yet another literary abuse of the language.
Interestingly, the tray into which the type slugs (lines of type) dropped when they were cast is/was called the "composing stick" - or "stick" for short. Not a compositing in sight. Them were the days, constant headaches and a constant general malaise from incipient lead poisoning.
Yes, being able to read pages upside down and back to front has been very useful ever since. I can stand in front of my boss' desk and read the papers in front of him ... so obviously being an ex newspaper jockey is an essential requirement for any self-respecting spy!
