But such a thought did rear its head when Rupert Murdoch took control of the paper. But that was years and years ago, and the decision was made fairly soon after the deal closed in 2007 that the piece would remain. And all these years later, it has.
The piece gets its name from the layout, something called A-Hed in print setting parlance that describes the shape of the headline, sub-heading and border surrounding the piece. The A-Hed shape is a lot more easy to discern when the piece is given a one column front page presence, as it always did have until now, when it can span something up to three columns, making the "A" shape somewhat harder to pick out. Sort of like trying to see the Big Dipper when it's cloudy.
The piece is always light-heated, and usually replete with puns. Counting the number of puns can be a game, with no answer to compare your result to.
I'm in one of my catching-up-with-the-unread-newspaper modes that finds me putting a dent into the stack. "Unread" is really a misstatement. I've gone through the NYT and the WSJ cherry-picking articles from each day's fresh editions. It's only when I get around to do the deep dive that I get to really find out what I might have initially missed.
Thus, I have just come across the A-Hed piece from the January 31, 2020 edition by Te-Ping Chen on what happens to old business cards.
I was once in touch with a WSJ reporter when I asked about the A-Hed piece and how it is developed. At the time, he explained there was a darling editor who has stayed on, resisting buyouts, who solicits stories from staff reporters who might have a good idea for a piece. In all my readings, I don't think I've ever seen a byline repeated.
For a while there I thought I detected a surge of stories coming from Belgian sources, but it proved to be a transitory blip. It seems whoever gets a story published as an A-Hed piece only gets the distinction once.
According to my source, the editor of the piece spent all their money years ago when they were convinced they were going to die, only to recover and find they were going to outlive their money by a wide margin. Needing funds to finance this unexpected new lease on life, they stayed on, and continuously edit the piece. True or not, the A-Hed piece is a delightful piece of continuous journalism,
Ms. Chen's A-Hed piece is somewhat atypical in that there is a paucity of puns. There is a reference to a Marie Kondo, who is not explained in the piece, but is an organizational guru whose advice business card holders might refer to when deciding whether to keep or discard their unneeded business cards.
There are many types of people who either get rid of, or keep their old business cards. Unmentioned are those who don't fall into any category other than having the decision on the retention of the cards made for them. Such as myself.
I Tweeted Ms. Chen (@tpingchen) the following:
No need to wonder what to do with my old business cards. A well-aimed 767 crashing into Tower One removed my supply from the 29th floor at Empire BlueCross BlueShield permanently. Only the few on me at the time remain.
http://onofframp.blogspot.com
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