Stop depress

The old Freeman press, unused, in 2014. It's no longer there. 

There used to be an imposing press by one side of the Freeman building, even though we haven't printed here since 2010. By the end of January —  this year —  it was finally gone, no longer a reminder of things that were.
But I still remember stopping the presses a number of times over the years, for different reasons (usually big typos or bad folios, or the very occasional big change in a story). I also remember that the myth of the editor running into the press courageously screaming "STOP THE PRESSES!" was not how things usually worked. It was too loud and nobody could hear you. You had to wave your arms like a maniac, mostly, and all you got when you did get it to stop was justified death stares from the pressmen, who were otherwise very cool guys (and yes, all guys).

I love having those memories. But I don't get depressed about not having the press. I'm not that attached to the equipment, or even the new devices. I took that photo with Google Glass, which was new tech. Now the version of Glass that I have is old tech. What's important is what we do with them, and when they go — analog or digital — we will miss them if they were used for good, while we keep aiming to do good work with the newer tools.

Anyway, that's what I tell myself when my computer crashes.