Thanks Reify99. In that case it would seem we should be seeing our long awaited Duke paper fairly "soon". Hopefully, it was worth waiting for and will be the beginning of a good 2010.
I have been editor-in-chief of two professional journals over the time period 1976- 2001. "In press" to me meant that the articles I had selected for publication were then being worked on by the publisher---letterpress or photo-offset---and would be released to me for final proofing on letterpress journal copy or a final OK to run on photo-offset. With my OK, the journal would be mass-produced on a time available basis and mailed to subscribers by the publisher to meet the monthly or quarterly deadlines I had imposed on them and that they understood.
The authors were not given an opportunity to revise their manuscripts once the "in press" designation was in place.