The newspaper jinx

There's on old newspaper superstition where you don't do or say anything to jinx getting the newspaper out. It's silly, I know, but it's there (or was) in various newsrooms. I've only worked in eight newspaper buildings, but I've felt the same thing at all of them.

Several years ago, we were putting out the sports section for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, and, without thinking, I said that we were in great shape. We had most of the paper done, and there was at least an hour before deadline. I was leaning back and smiling.

Ed Campbell, who was in charge that night, gasped. I'd broken the unwritten rule, and I was a veteran newspaper man (more than 20 years) to boot. I apologized and hoped that nothing would happen.

Naturally, it did. Within 10 minutes, the computer went down. It came back just before deadline, and we hurried to finish. We might have been 10 or 15 minutes late for our last page.

I don't think Ed or Doug really blamed me for the computer crash, but I kept my mouth shut after that. You never know.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

•What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

 Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

From The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

From The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing