Are we leading with the earthquake?

Flash back with us now to -- could it be 35 years ago today? The New York Times is running an eight-part series on The New Governors, and today's installment (Jan. 6, 1985) lights upon North Carolina. Hence the obligatory contrast graf, nestled amid the decline in tobacco and textiles and the boom in high technology.

Slight challenge here, though, calling to mind the copy desk's weary question to the writer who has failed to take advantage of the the atlas or the road maps (before there was Google, children, desks had resources like this lying around): Are we leading with the earthquake? Spivey's Corner, to the surprise of no one who's ever heard of it, is nowhere near the mountains:

Down at the NYTRNG property in Wilmington (on the coast at the bottom, south and a hair east of Spivey's Corner), it seemed like a good idea to alert the Times, or at least its wire service, which had moved the story ahead of publication, to the general flatness of the terrain where the Hollerin' Contest* is held, so we did -- leaving out the part about the earthquake, because that would have been counterproductive.

The Times's response: "Well, they let mountain people in it, don't they?" Got us there. And so the paragraph stayed.

The world was young, the mountains green; think back to the days when editors at small papers had enough time on their hands to bother Great Big Papers about stories they weren't even going to run, and next thing, you'll be wistful for the days when newspapers actually edited their own copy.

* G-drop is official style. Not my idea.