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From: Mike Czaplinski <mike.czaplinski@washingtondc.attgis.com>
Subject: Re: Get Down to Brass Tacks [was: Re: Burning Houses for Nails]
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 15:56:24 GMT
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imunro@scunix4.harvard.edu (Ian Munro) wrote:
>Barbara Hamel (bhamel@fas.harvard.edu) wrote:
>: As to why it's "mind your p's and q's" and not "your b's and d's," one
>: possible explanation is the bins of letters in a print shop were arranged
>: alphabetically.
>
>Were they?  It seems like an odd way to organize a print shop: wouldn't 
>they be more likely to arrange it by frequency of use?  On that point, 
>wouldn't you have a big pile of p's and a small pile of q's, thus making 
>mistaking the two bins unlikely anyways?

I've never worked in a printshop, but it seems to me that arranging
letters (which already have a well-known if arbitarily decided upon
ordering) by frequency of use would be far less efficient, even for
professional printers.

As far as judging by the size of the piles of letters:  I would
imagine that if you were in the middle of typesetting something
that needed to be done quickly, it is less efficient to judge
from the size of the pile you were reaching for weather or not it
was the right letter.

People think alphabetically, and it shouldn't matter how many
letters are in a pile, as long as there are a letters there to use.

>Ian "I love arguing when I know nothing about the subject" Munro

You'll fit in well on a.f.u. (of course, you're probably a regular
by now; It's been a while since I've had the time to keep up with
the group as often as I used to).

Mike "Lord knows, I've not known what I was saying for a long, long
time..." Czaplinski
mike.czaplinski@washingtondc.attgis.com

