Sports desk editor -- Easton, Pa.

That's the way I was raised on the desk, too, buck. Because at that time, there was no way to produce a 44-point head on the early cold-type systems. You had 42, or you had 48.

 

Yeah, on a few papers they told us the computer was incapable of doing this, but I don't think they were telling us the truth. You could use a squeeze command, but only to a preset squeeze, you couldn't customize it, thus preventing awful squeezes that make it look like a new font. If the hed was too long, you'd write a different one. I asked about kicking it up at one place and the AME/Graphics, who was actually really good and now runs a newsroom, said, "I don't think you have to be that anal about filling out the line."