Journalism lingo - a guide

At one place in the 1980s, the @ mark, which was put at the end of a headline to stop the hed type and begin byline type, was called "the asshole."

 

Only in a newspaper office can an editor yell out "I need 8 inches" or "I have a 6-inch hole to fill" and not get in trouble.

 

Michael Scott would explode in a newsroom.

 

Hairlines used to be what you had to worry about bringing home on your shoes and not the thing receding on your forehead.

 

Today's young journalists would look at you crazy if you told them you needed a 5-38-1 hed. And I can't remember when the last new person we hired new what I was showing them when I pulled out my pica pole and proportion wheel. Granted my nice metal pica pole is mainly used as a backscratcher these days. At least a few recognize the XActo knife.

 

I'm sure we have a few people on here that remember ATEX days with all the coding that entailed.

And you had to lay out the page on dummy sheets before sending them to the backroom to cut out

 

How about contests as to how many seconds you could hold a finger in the hot wax roller's reservoir. Records were often broken after we finished the paper, went out for a half-dozen drinks in 30 minutes before bar time, then returned to the office for a quick whizz.

 

Bastard columns aren't pieces written by guys you hate.

 

Greenie, I am from your state, and we used them all the time.

I do find that funny, though. I had a guy in my newsroom who had never heard the term"budget" in the story list sense.

 

My computer goes down on me all the time, but it's not just at work, and it doesn't swallow.

Ya know, I am 52, and I feel so old when we have these discussions. I have pica sticks and wheels. I remember hot-wax layout.

How about the word "live?" as in "I am working on a live story."

Putting stuff in the can to save it for later?

Bells on the wire machine?

Rolling up the AP tape for the typesetter?

Acoustic couplers.

Sorry went off the rails.

 

I used to love the smell of our waxer. I bet if I looked hard enugh I could probably find it in the backshop along with a couple blocks of wax.

 

If it makes you feel any better, BillyT, I'm about 10 years younger than you, and I can answer yes to all of the above. In fact, I keep a pica pole and a proportion wheel on my desk just for fun ... it's delightful when the interns look at them as if they're glowing moon rocks that just fell from the sky.