lavoiſier or eisenhower sez

I am overly fond of these sorts of anecdotes, and appreciate a fellow typographical aficionado sharing an intriguing enigma—after a stranger left this mysterious mcguffin on her doorstep, begging for authentication.
Apparently in the 1950s, the New York Times experienced a kerning dilemma on finding that the headline EISENHOWER SAYS was just a tick too big to fit in a single column, which certainly sounds deflating but probably far less frustrating that margins that try to outsmart the type-setter. In order to preserve the spacing of their copy, the newspaper turned to their foundry and commissioned, for the nonce, a super-skinny “S”—reminding me of the old-fashion Latin long minuscule s, that I think I first encountered in an older book about scientist Anton Lavoisier; I called him Lavoifier. To find out if this rumour could be substantiated, please check out the full investigation at The Atlantic.