Loose-Leaf Paper
“Why 8 ½ × 11 inch, college ruled, loose-leaf paper, Mr. Girard? I can’t sleep at night. You’re awful, awful, awful!”
That’s all right. I can take it. I know my dogs and cat and turtle love me. But what about that paper? Well dig this, although 8 ½ × 11 inch paper had a storied history (polyptoton) and place in the West, in 1921 then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover turned heads by approving 8 × 10 ½ inch paper as the official standard for government letterheads. Now, remember, that it was the villain Hoover, later as President, who led us into the Great Depression; you’ll recall, those of you that were around, the rallying opposition cry against him as the Depression set in: “In Hoover we trusted, now we’re busted.” It all started with the paper.
The dizzying, maddening confusion over paper sizes in America lasted for sixty years until President Reagan heroically set things aright during his administration in the 1980s by declaring 8 ½ × 11 inch paper the true standard of this shining city on the hill.
And so there you have it, the story of 8 ½ × 11 inch paper. My preference and request for it I’ve explained before―spacious and roomy for your writing, practical for my organizing―but now you can also see that 8 × 10 ½ inch paper is simply aberrant.
Read more about paper and other school supplies at the Christian Science Monitor’s piece “Hey kid―what’s in your locker?”.
Score it!