I was just thinking about managing my fonts on my computer, and it took me to reminiscing about BYU Studies days. It was so exciting to be around a group of people who were pretty smart or really smart, a lot of fun, a little nerdy sometimes (we did sit around all day and discuss misplaced modifiers), and who I knew would go on to do wholesome things for the world. I remember walking into the office of Robert, the typesetter--who is white, but played trumpet in a mariachi band, and who claimed he was a bully as a kid but was so friendly and accommodating it was impossible to believe, and who got a bouquet of flowers from his wife every now and them because he thought flowers were such beautiful things. I remember looking in awe at his bookshelf, as he came over and showed me "How to Boss Your Fonts Around" and some fantastic design magazine I wish I could remember the name of. And Doris Dant's bookshelf was even better--I'd sit in her office and jot down titles while she told me about my next project. And in that atmosphere, I couldn't imagine that there was anything in the world more exciting than source checking for scholarly articles or reviewing line endings on the bluelines before the issue went out. Copyediting! Typesetting! Source checking! Typography! Syntax! Grammar! Was there anything in the world more interesting than this? One of the interns, Kate, and I used to collect pictures of Jazz musicians and cover a half-wall sized bulletin board with them. When I was the coordinating editor (the title they made up for me when I started getting paid to stick around the office full-time) I remember our "Chicago Manual of Style" chases. We'd all been LDS Seminary students, so we altered the Scripture Chase to work for our bible of publishing guidelines. All the interns and I would sit around the table and someone would yell out "using an en-dash for an open compound," and then we would all feverishly turn the pages until someone found the entry.
The song says "there's no people like show people," but for me there's no people like publishing people. I just feel more at home with publishing people than anywhere else. Much more so than with dancers, and I've been around dancers so many more years in my life. This was true at BYU studies and at my work at Wadsworth on the peninsula and even at the San Diego book conference where I pathetically tried to get my first non-fiction book published. Some days I really miss all my publishing people.
I found these old pics from some photos we took and had planned to post up on our website.
