–30– has been traditionally used by journalists to indicate the end of a story. It is commonly found at the end of a press release. There are many theories about how the usage came into being, e.g. from that number's use in the 92 Code of telegraphic shorthand to signify the end of a transmission in the American Civil War era. In another theory, the "-30-" originated when stories were written in longhand; X marked the end of a sentence, XX the end of a paragraph, and XXX meant the end of a story. (The Roman numerals XXX equate to 30.)I have two reasons to use -30- today:
- Today is my last day as media coordinator at the Center for a Stateless Society. So, the end of a story.
- As of today, I've identified 30 media pickups in March for the Garrison Center's op-eds. Hopefully the beginning of a story.
[Update, 10:42pm: Make that 31 pickups -- one for every day in March! The Batesville, Arkansas Daily Guard just ran "Don't Look Ethel! (Really -- Just Don't Look)." That link is to the Garrison Center version -- the pickup is here, but it's behind a paywall]
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