When I was a kid, my dad would cross the road to the newsagent in his dressing gown to buy The Age and The Australian in the morning, and The Herald in the afternoon (before it became the Herald Sun!). He’d sit at the kitchen table with a highlighter, marking what stood out, cutting out stories and filing them away. If something really moved him, he’d write a letter to the editor — and many were published. I did think it was a little bit nutty and embarrassing at the time.