Diatribes - Groveling for Gravitas

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Groveling for Gravitas

Some of the editors I’ve worked for over the years have issued somepretty nutty operating orders. At one joint, the word “baud” couldnever be used. Reason? A competitor had that wicked word in its title.At another place we had a no-verbs-in-headline rule. The head wordweenie explained that, “verbs in titles are simply too jarring.“Whatever.

Of course, do-bees like you and me have no choice but to deal withkooky changes. How we cope with change is a measure of who we are. Wecan be practical: “It ain’t as bad as when I was in the Army.” Orobsequious: “Yes! I’d love to work next weekend without pay.” Ordepressed: “I’ll quit, lead the Olympic Quoits team to gold, then marryJulia Roberts.” (How Julia Roberts ended up in my bedroom is foranother column.)

Or, we can grovel for gravitas—my area of expertise. That’s how I’vemanaged to have a 25-year career in technical publishing, and that’swhy this column has emerged.
You see, the head honcho wants me to write a monthly column. He saysit’ll be good for da bidness. But I’m at a loss how my insulting yourintelligence will boost an already successful magazine. I mean, evenwithout my bloviating, DE is the CAD/CAM/CAE publishing segment leader(third-party research says so). I told the boss this, too. He wasunmoved.
But, hey, I need the job, so I do as I am told. And so now I grovel forgravitas from you, dear reader, and all you makers of terrific desktopengineering-related hardware, software, and services.

Anyway, by nature I’m more a grump than a groveler, and I’m always introuble because I shoot off my mouth. Thus, to avoid an accrual ofgripes with our audience, I grovel to accrue gravitas with you: Isthere a topic, say outsourcing, application convergence, or theseamless interoperability of design tools, that you would like me togrumpitize about from this, mon petit soapbox?

And, since we’re fussing with the look and feel of DE—check out thismonth’s Briefings—whaddya think about these changes? We want to make DEmore, er, hip and communitarian. (Yes, salespeople lurk behind thosemagic bullets.) Hip, I’m not, but Communitarian, I am. After all, you,me, the advertisers, journalists, and co-workers, even the boss and thesales dudes, we’re all in this together. Our fortunes and futures areintertwined. So, lend a hand here, and I’ll lend you a voice right hereand throughout DE.
E-mail me your ruminations on manufacturing, on design engineering, orwhatever else you think DE and this column could be. I’ll be yoursurrogate grump: I can blame you when I get it wrong, and you can tellyour boss that I said the same thing you said when we get it right. Awin-win situation all around.

Welcome to the new soapbox; I look forward to sharing it with you.
Thanks, Pal. —Lockwood