MI Printing: Word Myths: Kangaroo

Kangaroo, the word:

A widely held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning "I don't know." 

This is the Word Myth and very much un-true.

The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia. This account is also backed up by the ship's naturalist SIr Joesph Banks. It was recorded in the ship's log as spelled either kangooroo or kanguru.

In 1820, Captain Phillip K. King recorded a different word for the animal, written "mee-nuah." As a result, it was assumed that Captain Cook had been mistaken, and the myth grew up that what he had heard was a word meaning "I don't know" (presumably as the answer to a question in English that had not been understood).

Recent linguistic fieldwork, however, has confirmed the existence of a word gangurru in the northeast Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, referring to a species of kangaroo.

Kangaroo, the animal:

The name for a number of Australian marsupials that are members of the family Macropodidae. This family also includes the wallabies. The kangaroos and their relatives occur principally in Australia, but are found in Tasmania and New Guinea as well.

Kangaroos have a long, thick tail that is used as a balancing organ, and enlarged hindlegs that are adapted for jumping in many species. The forelimbs are quite short, except in arboreal species such as the blacktree kangaroo (Dendrolagus ursinus) and its relatives, in which all four limbs are about the same length. The two largest species are the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) and the great gray kangaroo (M. giganteus).

Kangaroos usually have one offspring each year. After the uterine gestation period of about 6 weeks, the very immature young "joee" crawls into the marsupium. After an uninterrupted period of 2 months, it ventures out to find food and then returns to the safety of the marsupium. It may seek the protection of the pouch for up to 9 months.

MI Printing Asks: Do You Use Statement Stuffers?

Are you sending out monthly invoices and statements? Do you notify customers of shipments or agreement modifications?

Then you need our MI Printing Statement Stuffers! These colorful little includes can help you have the cost of notices and invoices supported by an advertisemnet that will also remind your customers of a special offer, pricing or new items.  These stuffers can offer new and unique services as well.

Here is this weeks offer for you.
• 3½ X 8½ Statement Stuffers
• Printed 4/4 (Full Color Both Sides) (No Bleed)
• 100# (Pound) Gloss Book Paper
• 1,000 for just $88.99 (Sale Tax Extra if Necessary)

If you need help from start to finish MI Printing is here to help meet your needs.  Call us at 623-582-1302

(Offer Expires 04/30/2011)

MI Printing: Word Myths: Windy City

What is the Windy City Myth that the newspapers just will not let go of. The story goes that the nickname for Chicago was coined in 1890 by Charles Dana, the editor of the New York Sun. Chicago was competing with New York to host the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and Dana allegedly used the name as a derogatory moniker for the competition. Supposedly the term is not a reference to the winds off Lake Michigan as one might suppose, but rather refers to the Chicagoan habit of rabid boosterism and shameless boasting. To a New Yorker like Dana, Chicago was full of hot air, hence the Windy City.

That the story is false is not exactly new information. Mitford Mathew's Classic Dictionary of Americanisms, published over fifty years ago and long a standard reference book for American slang, includes a citation of Windy City from 1887, three years before the fight with New York over hosting the exposition and Dana's alleged coining of the phrase. The citation is repeated in the Oxford English Dictionary.  Anyone who did the least bit of research on the term would have discovered the Dana story to be untenable but newspapers just keep quoting each other to perpetuate the myth.

MI Printing: Arzona History: Geronimo Escapes

General George Cook caught them and returned them to the Reservation, only to have them escape again in 1885. This time Geronimo lead the escape. The Apaches had been angry because they were prevented from practicing their customs, and felt cheated by the scant rations they were given.

Following their 1885 escape, Geronimo and his 39 warriors were pursued by 5000 American and about 5000 Mexican troops, yet they were able to evade their pursuers, and to raid local food supplies for rations while on the run. Soldiers and Generals alike were amazed at the ability of these warriors. The army was unable to catch Geronimo and his warriors, but the constant pursuit had worn down the Apaches. Geronimo and his warriors agreed to surrender to General Miles and serve a 2 year sentence.

This agreement was broken by President Cleveland who imprisoned the Apaches at Fort Pickens, Florida by train (see photo below), until 1894.

Geronimo's ability to evade 2 armies of 10,000 men, while leading only 39 Apaches during the 1885 escape from the reservation, made him a folk hero in Mexico and America. Buffalo Bill asked Geronimo to join his "Wild West" show because of his celebrity.

In his later years, as a prisoner of war, he mellowed, adopted, grew several varieties of melons on his small farm. He caught pneumonia and died in 1909.

MI Printing: Print Shop at Pioneer Living History Museum

 A print shop was of paramount importance to the community in the days before radio. The communities received their news of the outside world from the telegraph and it was up to the print shop to disseminate it throughout the community.

Many towns were so anxious to begin a newspaper that printers set up their presses outdoors under trees. One editor wrote that he produced the first issue of a town paper "seated upon the stump on an ancient oak ...and with the top of a badly abused beaver hat for a table."

This shop features operating presses typical of those used in Arizona's Territorial newspaper and working "job" shops. Shops like these provided Arizonans with newspapers, handbills, calling cards, invitations, posters, and any other printing need.

The Print Shop is a Reconstruction of an 1890 shop in Phoenix. It contains a printer press, a Washington hand press, and numerous artifacts of the period.

MI Printing: Word Myths "Rule of Thumb"

Some legends are propagated because the moral lesson under-lying them supports a political agenda . Members of special-interest groups repeat the tale because it fits their purpose . Such is the case with the phase rule of thumb

 Myth: The popular expression 'rule of thumb' originated from English common law, which allowed a husband to beat his wife with a whip or stick no bigger in diameter than his thumb. The husband's prerogative was incorporated in to American law. Several states had statues that essentially allowed a man to beat his wife without interference from the courts.

It was true in some places (and unfortunately still is in too many) that a men were permitted to beat their wives, but this rule was never codified in English legal tradition; and a rule limiting such beatings to a stick of a particular size never existed.  In fact, this story of the phase's origin does not appear until the 1970s. Nor are the claims backed up with actual citations of legal precedent.

The actual origin of the phrase, it is most likely an allusion to the fact that the the first joint of an adult thumb measures roughly one inch, quite literally a rule (or ruler) of thumb.The earliest citation of the phase rule of thumb in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Hope's Fencing-Master from 1692, centuries before anyone connected wife beating with thumb-sized sticks: "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by Art."

Why Your Business Should have a Brochure

Do you ever have a customer ask for more information that they can take home and think about?  The average customer doesn't usually make snap buying decisions. They want to compare and think over any large purchase. What makes "it" a large purchase?  That answer varies from customer to customer. But the needs for product (or service) brochures are there.

The quick answer "It's on my website" doesn't satisfy everyone. Some customers don't use computers.  Others feel that a brochure you can hold in your hand is better than a website.
You should always have enough information in your brochure as is necessary to inform your customer about the product 9or service) and your business.

When a prospect requests your brochure, keep in mind, that they are interested in reading about your product or service.

They want to know about your product, service, website, price, ordering information, and you must be fully descriptive. Still keep the information simple by breaking the content into easy to read sections.
Make sure the customers knows you have the product or service to meet their needs.
Remember your brochure should inform your customer and close the sale!

If you need help from start to finish MI Printing is here to help meet your needs.
Call us at 623-582-1302

MI Printing: Word Myths "Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater"

The man of the house would get the privilege of the nice clean bath water. Then all other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was pretty thick. Thus, the saying, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water," it was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.

Does throw the baby with the bathwater refer to reused wash water that was so dark one could lose a baby in it? Is it Elizabethan in origin?  The phrase in question does happen to date to the 1500s, but to Germany not to England.  The rest of the story about babies and bathwater is pure fiction.

Throw the baby out with the bathwater or more accurately, das Kind mit dem Bade ausschutten, is a German proverb that dates to 1512. It was first record by Thomas Murner in his satire Narrenbeschworung (Appeal to Fools) in which he used it as a chapter title. Murner uses the phase several times in the chapter.  The original manuscript even has a woodcut of a woman tossing a baby out with the waste water.

The Phrase didn't appear in English for several more centuries, not until Thomas Carlyle translated it and used it in an 1849 essay on slavery: using it as a call to not let the slave suffer in the fight to rid the world of the evil of slavery.

MI Printing: This Day In Arizona History

Governor Nathan Oakes Murphy 

1882 - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and party left the town of Tombstone, AZ never to return. There is some speculation that John Henry "Doc" Holiday did return to the Tombstone Arizona area to take revenge on the cowboys who were involved in the shooting of Virgil Earp.  There is no known proof of that.  Doc Holiday died November 8, 1887 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado of the effects of "consumption", as tuberculosis was generally called in that era.

1890 - General George Crook died. A career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.  Ulysses S. Grant placed Crook in command of the Arizona Territory. Crook's use of Apache scouts brought him much success in forcing the Apache Indians, under chief Cochise onto reservations. In 1872 the Arizona Territory was at peace and Crook was appointed brigadier general in the regular army, a promotion that passed over and angered several full colonels next in line for promotion to general.

1895 - Navajo County was created out of Apache County. Navajo County is Arizona’s twelfth county. It was formed out of the western portion of Apache County. The county seat is located in Holbrook.

1901 - The Arizona Rangers were established by order of Governor Nathan O. Murphy. This action helped bring law and order to the territory, and would eventually help in Arizona's statehood bid.

MI Printing: Words To The Wise... Upset

The story goes that the sports term upset, meaning a unexpected defeat of one favored to win, stems from a classic horse race that pitted Man o' War, one of the greatest race horses of all times against an unlikely opponent named Upset.

During his career Man o' War lost only one race , the August 13, 1919 , Stanford Memorial at Saratoga. Man o' War was healily favored to win, but lost to Upset. The story goes is where the sports term upset comes from. Man o' War faced Upset five more times and won evey one, but the one he lost early in his career is the one to make lexicographic history.

This legend could not be disproved, though many tried, until researcher George Thompson traces the sporting use of the verb to upset to September 13, 1865 in the New York Times.  The use of upset as a noun appeared in the New York Times on July 17, 1877. Thompson found many uses of the term in late-nineteenth century sports writting proving that the word upset was a well-established sporting term by the time Man o' War lost the infamous race.

MI Printing: Happy Saint Patrick's Day

1909 St Patrick's Day Parade

Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on March 17th. It is named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland),  the Eastern Orthodox Church and Lutherans. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official feast day in the early 17th century, and has gradually become a celebration of Irish culture in general.

The day is generally characterised by the attendance of church services, wearing of green attire especially shamrocks, and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on fasting and drinking, which is often proscribed during the rest of the season. Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat.

Originally, the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. Over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century.He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a  feature of the day. In the 1798 rebellion, in hopes of making a political statement, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on 17 March in hopes of catching public attention.

The Charitable Irish Society of Boston organised the first observance of St. Patrick's Day in the Thirteen Colonies. The society's purpose in gathering was simply to honour its homeland, and although they continued to meet annually to coordinate charitable works for the Irish community in Boston, they did not meet on the 17th of March again until 1794.

New York's first Saint Patrick's Day observance was similar in nature to that of Boston's. It was held on 17 March 1762 in the home of John Marshall, and over the next few years informal gatherings by Irish immigrants were the norm. The first recorded parade in New York was by Irish soldiers in the British Army in 1766.  In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.

In every year since 1991, March has been proclaimed Irish-American Heritage Month by the US Congress or President due to the date of St. Patrick's Day.

Irish American statistics for Arizona: US Census Irish American population: 524,306, Percentage of total population: 10.2% Maricopa County: Irish 358,520

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MI Printing: Special Custom Ad Banners

Custom Advertising Banners, Full Color, Full Bleed, Starting at $6.50 a Square Foot from customer supplied art. Delivered!  Use these banners to get more Attention and Exposure at your next event!

At MI Printing we can take care of all of your business printing needs.  Fast Turn Around, Great Service and Fair Pricing are what we are known for.

Need to know more about all the uses for business banners?  Learn about the many options for your trade shows and events.  Please give us a call at 623-582-1302.

Sales tax, if necessary, is not included.  For best results a PDF file is required for the customer supplied artwork.  Please call if you have questions about setting-up for large displays and banners.

MI Printing: Words To The Wise... Nylon

The first of our invented, made-up or trade words is Nylon by Dupont.  The revolutionary fabric was invented by Dupont chemist, Wallsce Carothers in 1935 and released to the public in 1938 at the New York World's Fair.

The product was introduced at the same time in both New Your and London and many people think the name was from that.  The two cities combined as New York and London. Resulting in the trade name NYLON. Nice story, but according to the DUpont company it isn't true.

Another suggestion is that it can from the term No-Run.  Since nylons are NOT a no-run product this story makes no sense.  The suffix "on" comes from the natural product cotton and the synthetic product "rayon".

Like many trade names the term "nylon" is a made-up and part of the efforts of the Dupont marketing department.  It was chosen precisely because it was a made up, making it eaiser to defend in trademark infringement lawsuits.

Dupont followed up the World's Fair introduction with many print ads in all of the popular newspapers and magazines.

March 1914 Second U.S.S. Arizona

In March of 1914 the second U.S.S. Arizona's keel was laid down at the New York Navy Yard.  This battleship (BB-39) a Pennsylvania-class, was first skippered by Captain John D. McDonald.  The U.S.S. Arizona was commissioned at her builder's yard on October 17th 1916.

This great battleship departed New York on November 16th 1916 for shakedown training off the Virginia Capes and Newport.  She traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and then returned north to Norfolk a month later to test fire her guns and to conduct torpedo defense drills in Tangier Sound.

The U.S.S. Arizona operated out of Norfolk throughout the war, serving as a gunnery training ship and patrolling the waters of the eastern seaboard from the Virginia Capes to New York.

The lack of oil in Europe keep BB-39 at home for World War I.  She did serve as part of the Honor Guard after the rendezvous with the transport George Washington, the ship carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference.

The story of the U.S.S. Arizona in Pacific will be covered in a future blog post.

MI Printing History: Illustrated Civil War Magazines

Of course the American Civil War was from 1861 to 1865 and was a conflict that nearly tore this country apart.  People were very interested in the news and images from that great war.  In 1895 Charles P. Johnson printed a series of magazines that related the stories and images of the Civil War.

With help from the War Department in Washington D. C. and using original Matthew Brady photographs Johnson produced a 16 volume set of magazines that were highly prized works.

Each of the volumes contained many stories that were illustrated with drawings and photographs that were from many sources.  These sources include letters, official documents and newspaper accounts.

The set was reprinted in 1905 by Lossing History Company and was reprinted again in 1912 by The War Memorial Association.  It is very difficult to find a complete set in good condition today.  The 1912 edition even included color images.

If you can find and enjoy these Civil War reproductions consider yourself lucky.

MI Printing: Word Myths "The Whole Nine Yards"

There are many word myths that are listed about the phrase the "The Whole Nine Yards."  Lets look at just one.  The length of a machine-gun ammunition belt used in a World War II fighter aircraft.

The story starts to unravel when you search for the first date that the reference can be found in print.  A 1966 novel Doom Pussy by Elaine Shepard about fighter pilots in the Vietnam war.  "The first thing in the early morning and the last thing at night.  Beds all over the gahdam house. The whole nine yards."

In November 1958 a poem entitled Nine Yards of Other Cloth appeared in The Magazine of Fantsy & Science Fiction. The poem is about the length of cloth used in an Appalachian burial custom.

In World War II different fighter planes and bombers used different calibers and lengths of ammunition belts.  Ammunition was typically measured in either rounds or by weight.  If it is a reference to a WW II ammunition belt why does it first show in print in 1966?  With all the reports, literature, letters and documents, why is the phrase "The Whole Nine Yards" not found in period or contemporary WWII publishing's?

If you are looking for proof of exactly where the phrase comes from, I'm afraid that this one is Origin Unknown!

Paula and I hope you enjoy the MI Printing Blog.  Thanks Matt.

MI Printing: Special Custom Business Cards

1,000 Business Cards, Full Bleed. 4/4 (Full Color Both Sides), 14pt UV Coated Just $50.00 from customer supplied art. Are you ready? Delivered!  No one will mistake these cards for homemade ones!

At MI Printing we can take care of all of your business card needs far beyond just simple black on white.  They say you simply aren't in business without your business cards. Need to know more about all the uses for business cards?  Learn about the many options for your cards.  Please give us a call at 623-582-1302.

Sales tax, if necessary, not included.  Please ask about money saving larger quantities.  For best results a PDF file is required for the customer supplied artwork.

Offer Expires: April 8, 2011

MI Printing: Words To The Wise... Run

As you probably know the word " RUN " has many meanings.  In the printing industry we use it to describe the complete printing job.  It is a Printing RUN. But just how many meanings are there to the word run?

The Oxford English Dictionary lists 396 different meanings for the word run.  That is second only to the word " Set ", which has 464 definitions.  By the way " Go " is in third place with 368.

It should be noted that you can run a search for the word run in Google and the Oxford English Dictionary.  The Oxford English Dictionary online, is a subscription service (they do have a free trial).

What are some of the other meanings for the word run?

Definition: To move, proceed, advance, pass, go, come, etc., swiftly, smoothly, or with quick action; said of things animate or inanimate. Hence, to flow, glide, or roll onward, as a stream, a snake, a wagon, etc.; to move by quicker action than in walking, as a person, a horse, a dog.

Also:  To go swiftly; to pass at a swift pace; to hasten.  • To flee, as from fear or danger. • To steal off; to depart secretly.  • To contend in a race; hence, to enter into a contest; to become a candidate; as, to run for Congress.  • To pass from one state or condition to another; to come into a certain condition; often with in or into; as, to run into evil practices; to run in debt.  • To exert continuous activity; to proceed; as, to run through life; to run in a circle.  • To pass or go quickly in thought or conversation; as, to run from one subject to another.  • To discuss; to continue to think or speak about something; with on.  • To make numerous drafts or demands for payment, as upon a bank; with on.  • To flow, as a liquid; to ascend or descend; to course; as, rivers run to the sea; sap runs up in the spring; her blood ran cold.  • To proceed along a surface; to extend; to spread.  • To become fluid; to melt; to fuse.  - Just to name a few of RUN's meanings.

Need help with your next printing run?  Please call MI Printing 623.582.1302

MI Printing: Flyers Entice Buyers At Mardi Gras

At the height of attendance more than 500,000 people would attend the New Orleans Mardi Gras, nearly weeklong, celebration.  It is impossible to estimate how much additional printed advertising materials are handed out during the “Party”.  Bars, restaurants, hotels and events distribute millions of single sheet advertisements for this once a year celebration.

Flyers, beads, confetti and the like are tossed in the air nearly round the clock as the huge crowds wander through New Orleans in search of a good time.

Tuesday is “Fat Tuesday” and that means the city of New Orleans is got a huge clean-up job that starts over each night of the Mardi Gras celebration.

Veronica White, New Orleans Public Works Director says, “The tons of trash don't pile up for long.  Ten to twelve street sweepers roll through the New Orleans streets every night to clean up after the parades end for the day.”

While the Sanitation Department has about 24 regular employees, about 200 to 300 workers are needed each night to sweep, rake and collect the trash left behind.

White added that, “The task of cleaning up after a parade includes six front-end loaders, four street flushers, 16 dump trucks, eight to 10 garbage trucks and six to 10 pressure washers.  During the parades, four teams of workers tag along behind the floats, the first group of workers is located at the beginning of the parade route and begins to sweep and rake up the trash immediately after the parade passes the area.  Two more teams wait at the mid sections of the parade, and another team waits at the ending located on Canal Street in the French Quarter,”

”About $1.5 to $2 million is spent cleaning up during an entire Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, she said.”

In New Orleans, workers place more than 1,000 55-gallon trash barrels along the New Orleans parade routes, Sometimes the cans help minimize trash, but often parade-goers use the cans for a stand,  White said.

MI Printing History: Scientific American

Scientific American was founded by inventor and publisher Rufus M. Porter in 1845 as a four page weekly newspaper. Throughout its early years much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the U.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including perpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln, and the universal joint which now finds place in nearly every automobile manufactured. Current issues feature a "this date in history" section, featuring excerpts from articles originally published 50, 100, and 150 years earlier; topics include humorous incidents, wrong-headed theories, and noteworthy advances in the history of science and technology.

It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text and perhaps especially the quality of its specially-commissioned color graphics.

Einstein is among the many famous scientists who have contributed articles in the past 150 years.

In the years that followed World War Two, the magazine's readership was in steep decline. In 1948, three partners who were planning on starting a new popular science magazine, to be called The Sciences, instead purchased the assets of the old Scientific American and put its name on the designs they had created for their new magazine. Thus the partners and publisher Gerard Piel, editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager Donald H. Miller, Jr. created essentially a new magazine. Miller retired in 1979, Flanagan and Piel in 1984, when Gerard Piel's son Jonathan became president and editor; circulation had grown fifteenfold since 1948. In 1986 Scientific American was sold to the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany, who have owned it since.

In the fall of 2008, Scientific American was put under the control of Nature Publishing Group, a division of Holtzbrinck.  Donald H. Miller died in December, 1998, Gerard Piel in September 2004 and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005. Mariette DiChristina is the current editor-in-chief, after editor John Rennie stepped down in June of 2009

MI Printing: Words To The Wise... Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia: A word that sounds like its meaning.

The noun onomatopoeia is thought to has been first used in around 1577 AD. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word onomatopoeia originates from the Greek word onomatopoiia meaning 'word-making'.

Definition of Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle). However the word Onomatopoeia can also be used to describe the use of such words for rhetorical effect. For example, in the sentence 'The poet Tennyson used onomatopoeia as a linguistic device' (see example below).

Onomatopoeia and its Derivatives
The adjective onomatopoeic can be used in the sentence 'Woof is an example of onomatopoeia'.

Additional Examples
bark
ding
flick
growl
itch
sniff
woof

Yes, ding! The sound my dog makes when tapping his stainless steel bowl with his claw to tell me the dish is empty.

MI Printing: Special Custom Envelopes

Custom Envelopes, #10 White Wove 1,000 for $78.00 Black Ink on front from customer supplied art + sales tax if applicable.

Many times the first impression a person will have with your company is to handle and open correspondence that arrives in your company envelope.  There’s something about receiving a custom printed company envelope. You can feel the importance and significance of any document with the help of logo, printing and the quality of the paper.  In fact, correct envelope printing adds greatly to the image and credibility of a company.

While your letterheads are standards for businesses and companies, the envelopes that carry that important document can not be a poor quality product.

Envelope printing is crucial because it contributes to the image of professionalism and reliability that a company projects. The image of a company can be picked up from the documents that they produce and use in communications with the public.

Your company's formality and credibility is also reflected in your envelopes.  Envelopes in fact, have the power to affect a response from the recipients whether its favorable or not.  Depending on the look, appearance, color and quality, your envelope can greatly influence the way your recipients think about you and your company's message.

Contact Matt or Paula at MI Printing for help with your professional quality envelopes. 623-582-1302

MI Printing: Words To The Wise... Tabloid

The word "tabloid" was used to describe newspapers with a comparatively small page size.  Though there is no standard for the precise dimensions of a tabloid paper.

It is now used, sometimes pejoratively, to describe a newspaper that provides a treatment of the news that is simplistic or sensationalist, often with a focus on personalities and gossip, and much less detailed coverage of topics such as politics and economics than is offered by newspapers regarded as more serious. Tabloids usually include more celebrity news than political.

The tabloid physical format, however, is not limited to such newspapers. In the United States, it is commonly the format employed by alternative newspapers. As the term tabloid has become synonymous with down-market newspapers in some areas, some small-format papers which claim a higher standard of journalism refer to themselves as compact newspapers instead.  In the United Kingdom, for example, the word tabloid is used by nearly all local newspapers.

The tabloid newspaper format is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where its page dimensions are roughly 16.9 × 11.0 inches.

Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are often called broadsheets, and this designation often remains in common usage even if the newspaper moves to printing on smaller pages, as many have in recent years. Thus the terms tabloid and broadsheet are, in non-technical usage, today more descriptive of a newspaper's market position than its physical size.

The Berliner format used by many prominent European newspapers is sized between the tabloid and the broadsheet. In a newspaper context, the term Berliner is generally used only to describe size, not to refer to other qualities of the publication.

The word "tabloid" comes from the name given by the London based pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as "Tabloid" pills in the late 1880s.  Prior to compressed tablets, medicine was usually taken in bulkier powder form. While Burroughs Wellcome & Co. were not the first to derive the technology to make compressed tablets, they were the most successful at marketing them, hence the popularity of the term 'tabloid' in popular culture.

The connotation of tabloid was soon applied to other small items and to the "compressed" journalism that condensed stories into a simplified, easily-absorbed format. The label of "tabloid journalism" (1901) preceded the smaller sheet newspapers that contained it (1918).