Learn to type

Ben Cunningham's post on subsidizing philosophy majors was clearly demonstrated to me while I sat in the hospital emergency waiting room. One of the few available phones was being monopolized by a woman who made phone call after phone call. Eavesdropping wasn't necessary as she was speaking very loudly and on occasion was quite put out with folks who couldn't/wouldn't help her. Clearly, her bad manners were wearing on the other folks who had enough stress on their own plates. Her basic patter went:

"Hello, I'm a homeless, 59 year old unmarried, unemployed major in Public Psychology looking for transitional housing. Can you help me?"

After about the fourth phone call and hearing the details of her life over and over someone couldn't contain themselves any longer and stated dryly: "She shoulda learned to type."

Back in 1980 I left a good paying industrial purchasing agent job to move to Nashville. I didn't know how enlightened my Northern employer had been until I was informed by several headhunters that no one was going to hire a woman to do that job here in Nashville. I avoided an available part time secretarial job for months...until I ended up borrowing money to pay the rent and realized it was time to take any job that would pay the rent. So I humbled myself and took the job that had mysteriously remained opened for so long. It turned out to be a wonderful job with really nice people that suited me quite well. I was very glad I had learned to type.