To get you up to speed, last week, I asked why the first edition of newspapers used to be called the "blue streak." Researcher extraordinaire Joe Klapatch and a couple of Facebook buddies came to my rescue.
Joe found a book called "Coming of Age in Scranton" by Terry Carden. The author sold the blue streak editions of the Scranton tribune, and they actually had a blue line up the left margin.
My Facebook friends said it appears blue streak had its origins in lightning. Those old first editions were put out fast, like lightning, which causes a blue streak across the sky. Joe also found a column from a newspaper in Michigan, which said basically said the same thing.
I did learn a new newspaper term: "red ball." It refers to a story rushed in to print, like a hot red ball shot out of a cannon.
To say the least, newspapers are one of our more colorful industries.
Thanks to the internet, there are no deadlines. As soon as a story is good to go, it's thrust out to the masses. There are advantages. It's not nearly as much fun.
