Do you remember art classes at school? There would frequently be a need to put newspaper down to protect surfaces against some mess, and every so often, the paper would turn out to be The Sun - with it's Page 3 model. Back in the 1980s, this would cause a little excitement among the boys, and a huff from the teacher who didn't think we were ready for life drawing classes yet.
I'm reminded of this every time I have to mask a bit of layout with newspaper and then take a photo for a magazine. You need to be so careful, as readers will work out what you've used and judge you for it.
No point in sticking a copy of Socialist Worker in front of them, even if it's nothing more than a peripheral part of the photo. You'll be able to hear the sound of subscriptions being cancelled...
My solution is either a local paper, or in this case, some old pages from Private Eye, Once without any swearing, or contentious stories on, just to be sure. Ideally, no photos either - someone will get offended.
I suppose I ought to buy some rolls of brown paper, the stuff used for masking up cars for painting, but it's just another thing to store, and I don't need this that often.
3 comments:
I could imagine "interesting" reactions to a number of different publications:
"Socialist Worker" or "Morning Star" - errm ... could, perhaps, be regarded as somewhat "left wing" - possibly even prompting thoughts along the lines of "no truth in the News and no news in the Truth". (This refers to 2 Russian publications - "Pravda", which effectively translates to "Truth" - and "Izvestia", which translates to "News".)
"The Sun" - it isn't just "page 3" which could cause offence - there have also been a number of "interesting" pronouncements, political views etc..
"Telegraph" - some people (especially working class, union members or from "less affluent" areas) might have pretty definite views about some of the political opinions aired in this publication.
As for various local / regional papers, well, some of these seem significantly thinner than they might have been when I was in school. These days, some of them also seem slightly lacking when it comes to the "... Anytown magistrates heard today" type articles (which rather spoils the fun for law-abiding people like me).
If / when this country finally completely returns to normal, I'd probably probably regard the "Metro" as newspaper of choice for protecting tables etc..
We do sell smaller rolls of the brown masking paper at my workplace, 12 inches long and 50m long I believe, so takes up the same amount of room as kitchen roll, less actually.
If you were interested, I could get a price for you including postage or if you have any plans to visit digitrains again in the not too distant future, direct delivery would be an option. I'm not sure what my plans are regarding peterborough yet, (if that hasn't been cancelled too).
Nick - thanks for the offer, but I don't use it often enough really. Anyway, it's fun to tantalise readers with my reading of choice! :-)
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