Annals of advertising

See, kids, in the Good Old Days, when editors looked like Cary Grant and J-school grads looked like Roz Russell* and brontosaurus-riding waifs had the paper at the door of your cave by 6 every morning rain or shine, you could actually see "ads" and "stories" together on the same "page dummy" before you "went to press."

That produced what we call a "win-win situation." Ford dealers didn't like being opposite the daily PINTO EXPLODES story, and we didn't like it when CANDIDATE CAUGHT IN LOVE NEST WITH 'SINGER' jumped into a stack of ads for, uh, enhancement medications or the like. So when you saw this sort of story:

At about 6:16 p.m., Boone County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the trailer park at 3501 New Haven Road after a caller reported a man was exposing his genitalia from the window of his trailer.

... you gave the page an extra look to make sure that none of the nearby ads had -- oh, you know, SuperBanker ripping his suit off. There are better ways to have your work immortalized in CJR.

* And city functionaries looked like Billy Gilbert! This is totally true.