"Do you have a small end roll?" the front desk lady asked the pressman.

No, not an egg roll. Nor the day’s leftovers at the bakery. An end roll … the small one that costs $5, not the larger $10 version.

An "end roll" is one of those oddball newspaper terms that people in the business recognize, but is gibberish to those on the outside.

In brief, it is the end of a roll of newsprint. A roll of newsprint is webbed through the press, meeting up with others at the folder and cutter at the end of the machinery. The folder folds the webs of newsprint together, the cutter cuts them off evenly into individual sections, and the counter-stacker heaps and raises them for removal to the inserting machine.

When a roll of newsprint runs low, it is changed for a fresh roll … it wouldn’t do to have the paper tear loose from the core and go through the press without replacement, otherwise the section would come up a few pages missing.

Usually we take all the end ro...