THE other day I met a very bright and beautiful young woman who had been introduced to me as “a dating columnist.” As an old married guy, I am long past the dating stage of life, and our encounter was on far less intimate terms, but I was curious to know what a dating columnist does. “Well,” she explained helpfully, “I go on dates. Then I write about them.”
As Carlyle said: Blessed is he who has found his work. And what a variety of work there is in this postindustrial society! Aglance through the postings on craigslist, a popular classifieds website, turns up dozens of job titles whose manner of contributing to the Gross National Product one can only guess at: Infotainment engineer; Barista; Supply Chain Specialist; Dependency Resource Coordinator; Flash Developer; UI Designer; Data Miner; Phlebotomist; Esthetician . . . What do these people do for their weekly paycheck? Is a Barista related in any way to the portly gents in horsehair wigs who plead for their clients in English courtrooms? Does a Supply Chain Specialist specialize in supplying chains, or in chaining supplies? Do Data Miners have lamps on their hats? Esthetician I think I get: Since a Mortician deals with dead people (Latin mors, mortis-death), an Esthetician’s clients are presumably beautiful people (Greek aisthetes-one who perceives, with the common extension to sensual appreciation), or people who wish to be made beautiful-something to do with cosmetics or personal training, perhaps.
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