Summary

“Our Town Today with Hank Fiset: An Elephant in the Pressroom” remembers old rewrite man, Al, who used to boss Hank Fiset around and make him go fetch lunch. Al worked solely on a loud, clunky typewriter, recalling stereotypical images of smoke-filled rooms (although Al specifically did not partake in the smoking and looked down on anyone who did) and reporters pepped by one-too-many coffees. Hank Fiset recalls when Al “took the choppy prose and schoolkid syntax from [his] notebook and turned those scribbles into bona fide news copy” (85). Evidently, the grumpy old man played an important role in shaping the serious news reporter that provides New York with the “Our Town Today” column. At the end of the column, the reporter types out some of the same text which...