Some of us from the Bulletin newsroom went to the Los Angeles Times one recent evening for a Facebook-for-journalism workshop. Afterward we lingered in the building’s First Street-side lobby, which is open to the public and has a timeline, memorabilia and a giant globe. It also has a linotype machine, seen at left, and a plate of hot type used to make a front page in 1974.

Strangely, though, the plaques on each were reversed. The plaque on the linotype machine reads “This is the last plate of hot type set at the Los Angeles Times…” The plaque on the hot-type display begins “This is a linotype machine…”

Get me rewrite!

One wonders how long the plaques have been switched, and how many visitors to the Times on educational tours have left the lobby thoroughly confused … or chuckling, like me.