You may have noticed that the Aug. 9 edition of The Western Producer was narrower and taller than normal.
The reasons for this take us back to 1949, when an aerospace engineer named Edward A. Murphy was involved in testing the effect of acceleration on humans using rocket sleds. When sensors attached to the sled registered nothing, it was discovered that a technician had wired the sensors incorrectly.
“If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will,” Murphy was reported as saying.
That quote evolved into what we know as Murphy’s Law: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”
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Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
Now, back to Friday, Aug. 3, 2007.
The Friday before a long weekend.
The Friday before a long weekend before we were scheduled to begin a major upgrade of the inserting and mailing equipment that assembles the newspaper and addresses the front page.
The Friday before a long weekend where we had deliberately advanced our schedules to allow 48 hours of work to be completed before the installation crew arrived.
The Friday when the platesetter, which produces the printing plates used to put ink on paper, failed catastrophically.
Of course, in the spirit of Murphy, the old platesetter had been dismantled for shipping only two days earlier.
By the time the folks at Printwest, which prints The Western Producer, confirmed their worst fears, it was Saturday of the August long weekend. The technicians who could fix it were unavailable.
Phone calls and e-mails went from Winnipeg to Lethbridge, from Regina to St. Albert, in a desperate attempt to find somebody to produce the plates and rush them to Saskatoon. No luck.
Finally, we were able to contact the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix newspaper, locate their press manager at his cottage and pull together a press crew.
On Monday morning the presses rolled, and by Tuesday morning we were off to the post office.
Because of mechanical differences, though, the Aug. 9 edition of the Producer was slightly taller and slightly narrower than normal.
Still, at the cost of a few people getting little sleep, the paper got to our subscribers and the installation crew arrived and began work.
As I write this, I don’t know whether all this will delay delivery of this edition, but O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphy’s Law has me chewing my nails.
It says: “Murphy was an optimist.”
