How did we put out 144 volumes in less than 100 years?

Well, when the Jewish Bulletin began in November 1895, at which time it was titled the Emanu-El, its policy was to change volume numbers every six months instead of the usual 12. The result was a startling 72 volumes in 36 years.

Then on July 24, 1931 something came unglued.

Somehow — probably during paste-up — a Roman numeral "I" disappeared from the upper left-hand corner of the front page. Instead of "Vol. LXXII-No. 13," that week's edition read "Vol. LXXI-No. 13."

A tiny oversight. Those things happen.

Yet when it was time to change the volume number to LXXIII at the six-month mark on Oct. 30, 1931, no one realized the paper had reverted back to Vol. LXXI in July. Thus the Oct. 30 issue was numbered LXXII-No. 1.

There never was a Vol. LXXIII. Someone finally corrected the Oct. 21, 1932 issue to Volume LXXIV.

There also were no Volumes 94, 95, 96 or 97.

On Jan. 4, 1946, the newspaper started using Arabic numerals instead of Roman. Something got lost in the translation: four whole volumes.

Inexplicably, Vol. 93 jumped to Vol. 98 on Sept. 26, 1946. Did some wag in the production department think it would be funny to color in the "3" so it looked like an "8"? If so, the joke went unnoticed. That year's remaining issues went on being published as Vol. 98.

Now with hindsight, we feel we should have heeded the advice of an advertisement that ran on Page 7 of the July 24, 1931 issue: California Optical Co. prudently suggested, "Have our optometrists examine your eyes for glasses."

We wish we had made that eye-doctor appointment back in 1931.

Hindsight is, of course, 20-20.