Temping
Today was my second day at a scientific association downtown. Eight hours a day of proofreading scientific journal articles, checking for correct spelling, italics, consistent abbreviations, commas, consistent dates, consistent footnotes. I check long words with a quick mental slice into syllables--poly-pep-tide--and move to the next. We spell e-mail with a hyphen, end footnotes with periods, and and print "Fig. 1" in boldface. The people are friendly, chatting occasionally and bringing in fresh blueberries in the morning. But for the most part the office is quiet enough for me to hear police sirens on the street, ten floors down. On the wall next to my desk, an unknown kindred spirit here before me has taped a piece of paper no larger than a postage stamp. It reads, "Consistency is the last resort of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde."
5 Comments:
But consistency IS such a comfort in a world of entropy! On behalf of technical writers everywhere--which is what I am this summer, odd though it is to realize--THANK YOU!!
Oh, by the way dear... they want you to crown Lorrig as so he can be King instead of Black Prince. What think you?
::considers:: I suppose that could work. A high king isn't quite like a high queen. Certainly, there could never be another like our original High Queen.
But --oh dear, what will we call him? High King J.? High King Lorrig? If you ask me, the latter is too dreadful to be contemplated. "The High King" would do, I suppose. It would oust Michael Furlong, at least.
Query: does this mean the the high royalship is a regular office, to be handed down from generation to generation?
Hello! This is Hannah C. (the Okie one) and I wanted to ask you some questions about your experience with your poetry mentor, if you would recommend her, what kind of poetry she writes-- nothing big =). As GroupWise is down for the next month =( and I need to find out before then and don't have your address, I wonder if you would mind emailing me at my parents address (ahcurby@fairview-ok.net) sometime? Thanks muchly!
Hannah
p.s. Thank you for your blog! It's so encouraging to hear about Life After College (especially yours- I just plain enjoy your style too =). I'm planning to start one of these...one of these days...
It's as Lewis wrote, through the words of Coren, prince of Archenland:
It's the princes that have all the fun.
(An aside: Black princes are usually seen as good things, unless you're blatantly French, but black kings...let's think about this one people...)
Now, given that Mr. Lorrig has not yet come into his own kingdom, and that he has been placed in the position of the black prince by the grace of God, let him with patience forthwith enjoy his place, and learn the lessons God has for him as prince. When the time is right, he will be crowned King Jeremiah, to the accolades of his humble subjects, but until then, let God reign, the prince have his fun, and let him face the trial of Patrick Henry College...without which, he will be no king, indeed.
I concur with Firinnteine and Athallas.
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