“Who’s the old bloke with the wobbly tooth sitting behind the partition?”

I’d just been asked to print off a feature on PC utilities software that had been sent in by a freelancer (who happened to be an old builder friend of the editor, who knew a bit about computers). The article had arrived in the post, on a 3.5 inch floppy disk. Luckily, my top of the range Acer PC had dual floppy drives.

“Morning Harold, this article is for subbing.” There was a mumbled reply and nod, as I handed over a stack of paper and retreated quickly. I’d been warned not to linger for fear he would strike up a conversation about the technicalities of being a southpaw boxer, or the rights and wrongs of the penalty shootout. It didn’t sound too bad to be honest especially when weighed-up against reading another few thousand words on ethernet cards or dot matrix printers.

In the end I heeded the advice and slowly backed out of the partitioned corner, while Harold filled his pipe with tobacco and lit up, sending wafts of smoke over the wall and across the office. A few hours later, Harold emerged from behind the room dividers to drop the feature onto my desk before shuffling off in the direction of the toilet. The proof was covered in ink, with my headline suggestion crossed out (not for the first time) only to be replaced with Harold’s own idea of a clever, eye catching play on words – Utilities field is vast.

It was to be a recurring theme. I really didn’t know much about computers and the tech industry but Harold clearly knew so much less (unless of course the utilities field was in fact vast). But he had earned the right to know less because he was a media veteran of the World Cup in 1966, and an old, experienced newspaper man. What he didn’t know about subbing…