Saturday, March 18, 2006

"Who did page A7?"

This is how my supervisor starts the shift, by asking who designed a particular page of that day's newspaper, and as soon as she says it I know I am likely in trouble.

Today it was the obituaries. Obituaries were the bane of my existence when I was a reporter typing them up on Saturdays and they are the bane of my existence now that it's my responsibiliyt to plop them all on the page. Don't get me wrong, I sympathize with the greiving relatives. I know they have to be grieving to include long paragraphs explaining how much so-and-so loved animals and how so-and-so's cats and dogs are going to be honorary pallbearers.