The 1990 edition of BLANDX was the first put together on desktop publishing software, giving it an almost up-to-amateur-standard appearance. At the time, I was living in Big Rapids, Michigan while teaching at Ferris State University. The edition was produced using PageMaker software at the faculty computer resource center. The director used to comment that I used the facility more than any other faculty member at the university. Fortunately, he never examined what I was doing. Actually, I also used center to produce better looking tests, quizzes,and worksheets for my students. Nevertheless, the tax payers of Michigan deserve a big thank you for the improved appearance of this edition.
BLANDX has always been primarily a parody of the bulletin of the North American Shortwave Association. NASWA did a major makeover of their bulletin beginning January 1990 (NASWA for the Nineties
), with a new look, new columns, a new cover, and a new name. The new cover was empty white space with just the name and date in the bottom corner and was quickly characterized as a boring
cover. The BLANDX format changed to reflect what was going on in NASWA, except for the boring cover. The boring cover came in 1991, when there weren't any suitable cover illustrations.
