Today Is ...

May 7, 2024, at home

Today is National Paste Up Day. I was a journalist from September 1982 to April 2017, so I am quite intimate with the construction of pages of print publications by hand.

The outdated, yet traditional process is, basically: Just print out paper strips of stories, photos, captions, and headlines, (and advertisements), and then run them through a hot-wax machine, and then affix everything on pages of thin, gridded cardboard. Then, take a small, handheld roller to secure everything. Stick the pages in a printer, and there you have your print publication. Basically.

I must admit that I do miss constructing print publications using paste up, but I certainly do not miss burning my hands on the hot-wax machines and also often stabbing myself in the fingers with those X-ACTO (Exacto) Knives. Both: Ouch !!!

The first time I did paste up was in 1982, when I started as a writer, page design, and paste-up guy with The Villanovan, the student newspaper of Villanova University. After graduating in December 1984 with a bachelor's degree in communications with a minor in the French language, I then earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia in May 1988. I then did paste up as part of my first salaried job for a newspaper in 1989 to 1990, along with writing, editing, page designing, and taking photographs.

Then, three jobs later, from 1992 to 1996, I was back in part doing paste up. For this new job, I was a reporter, writer, editor, and researcher for an international, weekly magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry. During the first year or so of that gig, we constructed pages manually, using paste up.

On a rotating basis of our editorial staff, every other Friday, I would take the train with a few of my co-workers from New York City (Manhattan), where our office was located, to Westport, Connecticut, to put together the magazine in the old-fashioned way.

We would meet with a few composing-room people in an old, brick building and spend the day cranking out the pages. Luckily, we soon switched to a process where the pages were designed on computer screens in our New York City office, so we didn't have to take that long, round-trip journey anymore. Still, it was nice getting out of "The City" to work in a different locale.

(Later in my journalistic career, I would have jobs that would afford me the opportunity to become again involved with paste up.)

May 7, 2024, at home

I occasionally enjoy eating lamb, but, please, NO mint jelly.

May 7, 2024, at home

I have been disabled (on disability) since April 2017. I have been using a wheelchair, a walker, and a cane, but after many surgeries since 2022 (heart, 2 chest, 2 spine, and right ankle), walking without support may be in my future.