Had to share

[radegund]

So I'm proofreading a mutant table at the moment. It stretches over 70 - count them: seventy - pages. It has 16 columns, mostly numerical. Maybe 2600 rows. I can do about eight pages an hour, in half-hour chunks, and even with frequent rests my brain displays an inclination to turn to mush.

However, there are moments of relief, such as the discovery just now that, at least in 1911, there was a district electoral division in the environs of Tralee, Co. Kerry, that rejoiced in the ineffably divine name of Ratass.

Yes, that's Ratass. (Funnily enough, I missed it on the copy-edit - but then that was when I actually had to make sure all the numbers and percentages made sense, which was not a task that allowed much scope for humour.)

Furthermore, I can exclusively reveal that in 1911, the district electoral division of Ratass was home to 53 persons who reported themselves as being over the age of 60 in the census of that year, of whom 36 described themselves as Irish-speakers, giving a percentage (rounded to the nearest integer) of 68.

My aim is to educate, you understand.

Comments

[radegund.livejournal.com]

"Marble is worked." Indeed.

I think there's a lesson there for all of us.