Monday, April 07, 2008
Cutting Corners
It feels different, somehow, to once again live in a time where new episodes of Battlestar Galactica are aired each Friday night. Thank gods!
I’m not going to talk about the episode, there’s plenty out there if you want, but I will say I have done a google search because I wanted to find meaning in the paper without corners. I couldn’t for the life of me think of a paper press, printing, binding, ecological reason why all rectangular pages have their corners cut off, why creating that jeweled octagon would be an improvement, or even, a byproduct.
The mystery was solved for me Friday night when a friend told me the rumored story that the corners cut off of all paper, frames, books, etc., actually began as a joke re keeping the budget low for the mini-series, so much so that they were “cutting corners.” It looked so cool they just kept on doing it.
I found evidence to this in a thread on DVICE (do a find for “costs” a couple times). Also note the amusing related comments by Shane in the printing business.
And so my search for meaning failed, and as per usual the answer merely revealed a world shaped by conflicts of money, power and creativity.
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