Back in my Oakland Press days, the editor of the paper frequently tried to catch the photo staff off guard by bursting into the photo department unnannounced.
The hallway into the old photo department was narrow and there was little warning if someone was coming through the door.
So the photographers came up with a signal so that folks inside would know that the person coming through the door was a "friend" and not "foe."
The rule was for everyone, but the editor, that when you entered the photo department you were to give the door knob a long and loud shake so that folks inside would not jump to attention when the door opened.
The "door shaker" rule survived for a long time until one day the editor confronted the photo staff with his belief that people were shaking the door to announce the entry of anyone but himself.
He was politely told that he was wrong, that the door shaking was done to warn anyone coming down the narrow hallway to look out so they wouldn't get hit by the door opening.
Not sure he bought it.
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Is this the same editor who threw coke cans at people in the newsroom as well as chairs when angry? (which was often.) I believe this same editor got into a dispute with his paperboy and shoved him down from his bike. I see the veins bulging. Yeah, that's him.....
That's the one.
Actually, I once saw him so angry that he instead of walking around the desks that blocked his path to the copy desk, he jumped up on the desks and walked over the top of the desks in a straight line to the subject of his anger.
If he did all those things, what an unprofessional asshole.
He did, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of former employees with similar stories.
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