Monthly Archives: October 2009

Newsies of the Day — and a dog

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via shorpy.com

My good friends over at Shorpy.com have this image of newsies (what they used to call the kids who peddled papers on the streets) from Boston, Massachusetts. October 1909. They look pretty chipper for being at work at 5 a.m. on a Sunday.

Guy in the Bowler hat must be a manager-type from the paper, but notice that some of the boys look to be about eight or nine and that one guy in the back right looks like he’s pushing 20.

Kudos to the fellow wearing the bowtie! Any bets that the dog’s name was Spot?

Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine, whose photos of child labor were instrumental in getting child labor laws enacted in the U.S.

For one of Hines’s icon non-child labor photographs, check out this.

Celebrate Columbus Day — fold a newspaper sailor hat

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Tip of the hat for the creative types in charge of the Macys account for linking Columbus Day with a newspaper sailor hat!

But I’m thinking that the dog’s little hat is a Photoshop job.

Making a newspaper sailor hat is one of my first newspaper memories. Doesn’t everyone learn how to do this in kindergarten? Do they still do this anymore?

If you’ve forgotten how to fold a newspaper sailor hat, or never knew how, go here for a refresher.

Newspapers make great umbrellas

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Media_httpfarm3staticflickrcom26123983472098a2220289fcjpg_niwbwobvdljjfbc
via techdirt.com

My good friends at the Statesman are running this little ditty on their boxes and of course it’s caught the eye of a photog.

Well, yes, they do, although personally, I prefer to use one of the free newspapers (even though their boxes don’t say, “Free newspapers make great FREE umbrellas”) because, hey, it’s FREE!

In this case, I think the Statesman is having a little fun at its own expense.. although I would have gone with “Computers don’t make great umbrellas.”

Last Remaining Human Who Actually Wants To Subscribe To A Newspaper Can’t

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via consumerist.com

My friends at the Consumerist relays this tale of woe from a Washington Post subscriber. I’m sure that most newspapers have similar stories to tell, but with subscribers jumping ship in droves, you’d think that newspapers would be making customer service, as Ford used to say, Job Number One.