Good evening, 919 Gang. Fingers crossed. My Internet link has been up and down tonight.
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HAL FUSON writes:
During my time on the desk of the Houston Post (1969-70), the paper underwent a redesign along the lines recommended in the video to which Walt Baranger linked us. Here’s the editor’s note on the front page of the first redesigned issue.
And here’s the full front page.
The redesign was done under the direction of a consultant from San Diego that I am fairly certain was Howard Taylor. I was a lowly rim rat who had just arrived on the desk a few weeks before the redesign went live, and, while I was often assigned to oversee makeup in the backshop, I wasn’t designing pages.
What I recall most about the redesign was the indignation of the typos, who were appalled that we would waste all that empty white space instead of loading it up with fillers — how on earth was anyone ever to know again what the average June temperature was in Latvia? They also objected to having to do all the leading necessary to square everything off.
I’m curious to hear more about Howard Taylor. Some 919ers must have stories.
REBER: When the late Jerry Remmers spent a brief spell on Tribune Sports I introduced him to page layout. One day when the first edition came up, there was the lead sports page with two white gaps two inches high.
Managing editor Walt Miller said, “At last someone knows how to utilize white space.” I wasn’t sure if Walt was serious, but I fixed the page.
PAMELA DUGAN says:
Walt Baranger wrote: "John Gibbins’ recollection of Copley Productions got me rummaging through my archives." Thanks for that word choice, Walt. "My archives" sounds so much better than "all that crap I haven't disposed of yet."
PRESTON TUREGANO writes:
Copley Films was headed by the late Howard Matson who was also David Copley’s and DC father, James's, chief party planner. Walt Baranger’s Thursday 919 posting brought Howie's other role to mind; he also was David's "auntie," an older gay man who mentors a younger gay man on gay culture but never with any physical sexual relationship. At the end of his posting, Mr. B. mentioned a Copley Films production on VD (venereal disease). Walt’s closing comment hit the nail. I go into that “social disease,“ and Howie in general, in my memoir still set for publication in December. Watch this space.
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CARL LARSEN writes:
If you want a fix of San Diego history, including pre-Copley newspaper history, you won't go wrong by spending a little more than an hour listening to Dr. Sandra E. Bonura talk about her new biography of a man whose name we all know -- John D. Spreckels. But how well do you know him -- sugar king, owner of the Hotel del, trolley lines and pre-Copley newspapers, as well as developer of Broadway downtown, and benefactor of Balboa Park's Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Yet, for much of his career here, he was reviled. There's even a Hawaiian coup d'etat, yacht racing, a newsroom shooting and classic newspaper architecture, back when newspaper offices occupied a cathedral-like role in many cities. Her book is "Empire Builder: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego." I watched her PowerPoint at a session sponsored by the SD Public Library, but the link below is to a similar presentation at the Escondido library. Why haven't we recognized him more, asked one viewer? I don't think in today's environment we'll be building any statues in his honor. Check it out. It's a book long overdue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DK1VbUy4RM
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DAVID FARMER writes:
I need advice. I have received the following request: "Øسين الجلالي wants to be friends with you on Facebook." Should I accept, ignore, or write a nasty warning to Øسين الجلالي not to darken my doorway again? Of course, the latter choice is purely figurative, as the requestor has not even come near my doorway.* I suppose I should say, "darken my inbox" again.
I did a cursory check and found that my would-be friend lives in Tunisia and writes in Tunisian Arabic. That's one of the dialects of that ancient tongue I have not yet mastered, along with all the others. I'm afraid that if I send Øسين الجلالي an ill-considered reply in, say, Google Arabic it will provoke an international incident with gunboats racing to our respective coastlines.
I've never before received a friend request from someone who does not write in English. Consequently I don't know this person's gender, or even whether the craze for gender reassignment surgery has reached Tunis, the nation's capital. Out of 2,700,000 persons in the metropolitan area there are sure to be a few requesting the right to employ the bathrooms of some gender of which they are not members.
But bathrooms are not the issue here, and I wish you would stop waving your hand, trying to introduce them into the conversation. Or maybe you are simply requesting leave to visit a rest room. I cannot arbitrate your choice of men, women, or all-gender. That's a matter best left to Southern American states, which apply the proper emphasis to the topic as opposed to, say, their citizens' lacking enough food.
I always check for mutual friends, as that usually provides a clue as to whether I wish to augment a stranger's friend quotient. In this case, the sole mutual friend is Adam Clayton Powell III. Readers who are somewhat ancient, such as myself, will remember Adam's ancestor, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. He was a Baptist pastor and long-serving member of Congress from Harlem, NYC.
It is difficult to keep the A.C. Powells straight, as there was a Sr., a Jr., a III (my friend) and an IV. The last was jokingly called "Intravenous" by his fraternity brothers. I made that last fact up, though the rest of this item is substantially true. But my mood was beginning to become somber and needed to lighten it up.
I worked with Adam III at CBS News. Still, I don't know him well enough to quiz him about Tunisians who are trying to infect my Facebook page with malware, if indeed that is what Øسين الجلالي is up to.
I await the help of all who read this request. I do not dare essay an assertive reply until I get moral support. It's my impression that Tunisians are very touchy about these things.
*On the other hand, it's entirely possible that Øسين الجلالي is even now studying my doorway with destructive behavior in mind.
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CARL LARSEN writes:
The play’s the thing as the Chicago Tribune appoints a new editorial page editor — its theater critic — amid a staff exodus.
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REBER: We start a new month by wishing Gordon Murray a Happy Birthday on July 1.
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