I once met an old journalist who worked in a busy city newsroom in the 60s and 70s. He told me lots of old stories but one I always remember is that he said their deadlines were so bad back then because everything ran on pen, paper and typewriters - there were no computers, word processors, email or the internet, yet they were expected to pump out a 500 word story in an hour to be edited, corrected, checked and confirmed to make the printer by midnight to be printed the next morning!

They didn’t even have time for breaks, especially on a busy news day. So instead of drinking coffee, he got into the habit of eating whole coffee beans instead and just munching on them as he worked. He said several of them just ate coffee beans by the handful in the office.

When I met him he was a retired old man with his wife living in the middle of nowhere running a quiet bed and breakfast. He said he had to retire after his fourth heart attack and a couple of bypass surgeries. Most of his colleagues had died early deaths from heart disease.