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Offsetting the NA
AT THE New Haven convention, outgoing president Matilda Haywood announced the award of a Presidential Citation to Official Editor Richard George for his efforts in holding down production costs for Volume 108 of the National Amateur. To this I’d like to add my “amen.”
Russ Paxton spoiled us for years with quality letterpress printing at giveaway prices. When we were forced to turn to commercial offset printing after Russ retired, we found out just how big his contribution really was.
Pragmatism dictates cold type/offset official organs from now on, and as much as this pains my letterpress-chauvinist soul, I must admit there are benefits to be realized from this development. As Dick George demonstrated, computer owners can set the type for future volumes if they have the right software. Alternatively, cold type composition can be purchased for less than Linotype prices. Our print-oriented members should have no trouble mastering pasteup and a little shopping around will secure presswork at reasonable prices. Additionally, photo-offset offers flexibility in the use of halftones and line art that doesn’t exist in letterpress except at stiff prices.
Were it not for the strict dictates of the Constitution & By-Laws (may it endure forever… and it probably will), further flexibility and savings could be gained by reducing the NA page size to 5½x8½; multiples of 8½x11 are the standard sheet size in the printing industry today. However, this change would require a constitutional amendment and you know how the inner circle feels about amendments proposed by we outsiders.
When Paxton retired I feared the worst, but I’m happy to admit I was wrong. I look forward to future volumes of NA that are well designed and printed by the (ugh!) offset process.
On Sportsmanship
In past issues of this paper, I have gone on at some length on the subject of sportsmanship. I have bemoaned the antics of such American athletes as Mary Decker, Cassius Clay, Denny McLain and Joe Pepitone. However, as news from the recent America’s Cup sailing races in Australia indicate, poor sportsmanship isn’t a purely American phenomena.
It has always been the tradition in this series for the losing crew in the challenger round to support the boat that defeated them in its race against the defending champion. But New Zealand skipper Chris Dickson and his crew decided to break with tradition after losing to the American yacht, Stars & Stripes, and announced they would help the defending Australians instead. One can almost see Dickson stamp his foot in a fit of temper.
Dickson claimed the decision was taken because it would be less expensive for the Kiwis to challenge in Australia than in the United States when the event is next held. Of course, that’s a rationalization. This act by Dickson and his crew was a classic example of poor sportsmanship.
When I was a kid, we called those kind of people “sore losers.” Clean up your act, Kiwis!
Priorities
In Mid-January, Betty and I, along with Jack and Louise Bond, spent a pleasant Saturday with Al and Alma Fick in Longboat Key where they are wintering.
When I asked Al why Harold and Gussie Segal didn’t come down to Florida again this winter, he said Harold had spent all his spare money buying NAPA memberships for the AAPA members he recruited last year.
I suppose it’s a matter of priorities.
National Calamity is a hobby journal published and printed for distribution in the bundles of the National Amateur Press Association by Frederick J. Liddle, Prop., Carpetbagger Press, Tampa, Florida 33606.