The Trailing Edge
The Ed is crabby again.
He always is, a few days before deadline. In fact, you could set your watch by it. We’re not sure, but we think we can hear him muttering, almost inaudibly “that’s it, that’s my last issue!” except he inserts that word in between every pair of words. His guidance and instructions are just about polite, but terse. We think you get the picture, and it ain’t too pretty.
Then, surprisingly, as deadline ticks ever closer, his mood begins to lift. It’s as the issue begins to take shape — where the sequence and flow has emerged and the final product is now inevitably going to make the deadline. It’s down to steadily checking items off the to-do list. We know we’re that close (pinching fingers together) when he begins to hum that infernal Looney Tunes theme. Ironically, he only knows one line and we don’t have the heart to tell him he has it wrong:
“No more hearsing, than hearsing apart…”
Finally, like the white smoke appearing above the Vatican, the New RCSD flag is raised over the home office and we have a new issue. To say the process is weird is an understatement, but 23 issues into the new papacy, it does seem to work, surprisingly.
Between us, there have been some professional setbacks for The Ed over the years, with things not always working out quite the way he had hoped. But particularly when he’s in air traffic control mode working with the contributors in these final days before the new number hits the streets, there’s a unmistakable, focused gleam in his eye that gives us the impression he has finally arrived where he truly wants to be.
But also between us, he can lose the crabbiness any time.
New in The RCSD Shop
For the November 2022 issue we featured this elegant, contemplative cover photo taken by Martin Pilný at a local F3G competition held in Litomyšl in the Czech Republic on 9th of July, 2022. It shows Vašek Vojtíšek checking the weather conditions before the start of the next round of the competition. Order yours today.
All items in the Shop are made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why they are fairly priced and it takes us a bit longer to deliver them to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction and waste. Everybody wins.
Thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions and also helping to support the New RCSD!
Make Sure You Don’t Miss the New Issue
You really don’t want to miss the December issue of RCSD when it’s out — we always have some exciting things in the works. Make sure you connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn or subscribe to our Groups.io mailing list. Please share RCSD with your friends — we would love to have them as readers, too.
That’s it for this month…now get out there and fly!
Read the previous article or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
