Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[spiritbass]

Why'd you have to bring up PMS? My guess is nobody in this thread needs to worry about that (anymore).

Being a printer who operates and old AB Dick one-color offset press, my concern is that I am using the proper PMS (Pantone Matching System) color ink...

 

[Haroldo]

Right. When I worked for the dragon lady editor I would run all my copy through "find and replace" searching for the double space and period and replace them all with the single space and period before I gave her my work. I caught holy heck if I forgot, which I often did.

The thesis editor/final arbiter at the University of Wisconsin back in the dim mists of time was likewise universally known as 'The Dragon Lady'. Woe be unto you if a figure was 1/16" too large or if the font wasn't italicized when it should be, etc. etc. She was a friend of mine and I was cut no slack.

 

[LBS-bass]

The thesis editor/final arbiter at the University of Wisconsin back in the dim mists of time was likewise universally known as 'The Dragon Lady'. Woe be unto you if a figure was 1/16" too large or if the font wasn't italicized when it should be, etc. etc. She was a friend of mine and I was cut no slack.

There be many dragons in the editorial dark arts.

 

[Haroldo]

No boys in typing class at school because boys grow up to be executives and girls grow up to be their secretaries ....

Not me mum's (the Electrical Engineer) philosophy. It was off to typing class for this boy. And a fat lot of good it did me - I am the lousiest of typists imaginable.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Right. When I worked for the dragon lady editor I would run all my copy through "find and replace" searching for the double space and period and replace them all with the single space and period before I gave her my work. I caught holy heck if I forgot, which I often did.

The solution is the proportional EM space And yet I've seen .... what I see is editors need to be editors and compositors need to ... never mind. This argument was lost long ago in the accounting office.

Being a printer who operates and old AB Dick one-color offset press, my concern is that I am using the proper PMS (Pantone Matching System) color ink...

Hero (not snark)

The thesis editor/final arbiter at the University of Wisconsin back in the dim mists of time was likewise universally known as 'The Dragon Lady'. Woe be unto you if a figure was 1/16" too large or if the font wasn't italicized when it should be, etc. etc. She was a friend of mine and I was cut no slack.

Real typists do footnotes on a manual typewriter

There be many dragons in the editorial dark arts.

And they are natural enemies of my kind

... happily no longer calling typefaces when the movie credits run.

 

[biguglyman]

No boys in typing class at school because boys grow up to be executives and girls grow up to be their secretaries

Got my son a copy of The Spongebob Squarepants Typing Game for the computer when he was maybe 6 or 7. When he got to the Mavis Beacon course in high school he aced it. He now types over 120wpm (sounds like a machine gun!) and is in his last year of college studying to be a software engineer with a double minor. (music and technology and computer science) I think it's serving him well...


Not to brag but he's been on the Deans list every semester as an honors student and carries a 3.87 GPA.... ok, I am bragging. He gets his brains from his mom.

 

[LBS-bass]

And they are natural enemies of my kind

... happily no longer calling typefaces when the movie credits run.

Yep. There's a reason I am now taking care of people's pets for a living. Couldn't deal with the dragon lady and her micromanaging ways.

I retired from the University with a small pension that gives me a little more freedom to work part-time on my own. I get to do what I want, more or less, and there's a little wiggle room for music in there. Life could be worse.

 

[LBS-bass]

Does everyone here remember when they started teaching "keyboarding" classes so that young males would feel better about learning to type in the dawning age of home computers?

 

[SoulReflection]

No boys in typing class at school because boys grow up to be executives and girls grow up to be their secretaries ....

Hah...not always true! In my case, I had some extra classes to take in school, so I took typing and business machines. Passed both, and it was nice working with the girls . Both served me well through the early years as a clerk, then, I was a Sales Manager and then a General Manager, all without a secretary. Then it was time to start my own business. I was happy and still didn't need a secretary. YMMV.

 

[SoulReflection]

Does everyone here remember when they started teaching "keyboarding" classes so that young males would feel better about learning to type in the dawning age of home computers?

For me it was '65/'66...right at the dawn of manual vs. electric typewriters.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Yep. There's a reason I am now taking care of people's pets for a living. Couldn't deal with the dragon lady and her micromanaging ways.

I retired from the University with a small pension that gives me a little more freedom to work part-time on my own. I get to do what I want, more or less, and there's a little wiggle room for music in there. Life could be worse.

Stoopid pet story incoming

Odin is a three year old standard poodle. Odin is a very good dog. Never once have I seen him do anything unbecoming to his kind, including spraying.

We share the space (nominally) with a 16 year old cat who appears to be enjoying his last summer. (But you never know, cats being cats.) Wednesday as Odin and I returned from our evening walk, I decided to go through the yard. The cat, seeing us coming, walked down to meet us, and we walked together up to the garden. I stopped at the catnip plant that is now in full bloom. And ... Odin sprayed the catnip!

Seriously laughing all way into the house. Giving Odin the high five and still laughing!

 

[beans-on-toast]

Does everyone here remember when they started teaching "keyboarding" classes so that young males would feel better about learning to type in the dawning age of home computers?

I would guess that it really took off in the 80’s when schools started getting computers.

Schools that didn’t have pianos for music class used to have paper keyboards that allowed students to practice keyboarding.

 

[GwenOnBass]

For me it was '65/'66...right at the dawn of manual vs. electric typewriters.

The IBM Selectric was my personal fav.

Manual typewriters are something of a rage these days. People buy them as decorative curiosities. Typewriter repairmen? Where did they go?

We used enormousbig Royal typewriters in J school. Computer keyboards spoiled me.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Scientific papers with formulae in them required changing Selectric balls to get the math symbols. Laser printers were game changers.

 

[biguglyman]

changing Selectric balls

...and we all know how painful THAT can be.

 

[GwenOnBass]

...and we all know how painful THAT can be.

And right on time, the mouse ball jokes.

 

[biguglyman]

the mouse ball

 

[the harp unstrung]

Re the Oxford comma....Red, green, and blue. Without the oxford comma, I see green and blue as grouped together. It also allows for a pause after green. Red (pause) green (pause) and blue makes more sense to me than red (pause) green and blue. The former establishes a natural cadence when the words are spoken.

In a similar way, I see that the Oxford comma allows the sentence to be expressed in a more precise form.

I

I will fight for the Oxford comma up to and including my last dying breath. It's that useful.

am

Also double spaces after periods, which I will never stop doing because it's ingrained in my fingers.

among

Ditto on the spaces. It really drives some folks 'round the twist, tho'.

my

No boys in typing class at school

people.

 

[Jeff Scott]

...my old math days...

How about New Math?

Being a printer who operates and old AB Dick one-color offset press, my concern is that I am using the proper PMS (Pantone Matching System) color ink...

My world consisted of Roscolux, Macbeth Color Checkers, and grayscales.

The thesis editor/final arbiter at the University of Wisconsin back in the dim mists of time was likewise universally known as 'The Dragon Lady'.

Are we missing a couple of Oxford commas, here?

Schools that didn’t have pianos for music class used to have paper keyboards that allowed students to practice keyboarding.

Kind of, like one of these?

 

[the harp unstrung]

[QUOTE="Jeff Scott, post: 22921505, member: 71488
Kind of, like one of these?

View attachment 3495072[/QUOTE]

EXXactly like that.