My post today at The Chicago Manual of Style Shop Talk blog:
The most mind-numbing job I ever had was in an insurance company filing papers—carts full of policies to put in numerical order, hour after hour, 1064952, 2586027, 1943902, 1064951. The only thing that kept me awake was the occasional paper cut. I’m sure they’re still looking for some of the policies I misfiled in my stupor.
Every writer or editor is faced with a mindless task now and then: alphabetizing, renumbering, abbreviating, spelling out. When it comes to word processing, people sometimes ask “Can’t your computer do that?”
Photo: Work Conditions: Ingersoll Watch Company, c. 1900, by William M. Vander Weyde, accession no. 1974:0056:0246, courtesy George Eastman House
