A friend of mine told me my headline from Monday, "Why it was great to edit print publications," was a snoozer, seemingly meant to convince readers I'm 72.

Well hell, man, these 20 years I've been in the working world have been a pretty big 20 years in the communication business, and looking back over those two decades sometimes makes a body feel like he's 72.

For instance:

In the early 1990s, one of the most popular seminar leaders was a graphic designer named Edmund Arnold. Ed was known as "the father of modern newspaper design," and claimed to have designed more than a thousand newspapers as a consultant.

He was a charming man and a fine teacher who believed, and taught until his dying day, that ragged-right margins were a sign of slovenly hipness, as much a regrettable fad as bell-bottoms, long sideburns and large collars.

He taught a lot for Ragan, and toward the end of his career Ragan staffer Pat Williams asked him if he ever had a hard time remembering the names of those who attended his sessions.

"Oh no," he replied. "I just call all the guys 'Champ,' and all the ladies, 'Honey.'"

I once worked with Ed to produce a book. He believed desktop design was a fad, too. So this was a real honest-to-goodness cut-and-paste job which he sent to us, all mocked up and, in Ed's mind, ready to shoot and print. The Ragan staff designer and I took it down to the corner tavern to look through it and determine if she could reproduce it on the computer.

I spilled our second pitcher of beer all over the manuscript, and we frantically mopped up the pages, one by one.

Now I ask you: With a head full of yarns like that, how can you not feel 72?