Just the facts, ma'am

At first I thought this job posting was quite the oxymoron...fact checkers at Fox News, teehee. Then I reread (checked my facts) and realized the job is billed as Fact Writer. Which, really, is even better.

For anyone without a MediaBistro account, here's an excerpt from the listing:

Responsibilities include writing on-air facts and press conference quotes for daytime programming. Individuals must have strong writing skills, be able to handle multiple assignments and deadlines, and work well in a team atmosphere.

(Three posts and it's not even noon. The coffee is working.)

"Humour is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue."

Yeah, Ms. Woolf, it's true. Today I felt proficient because I made a little pun in French. Discussing our attachés, who each work on a different branch of science and many of whom are leaving soon, I said "on est attaché à nos attachés" ("We're attached to our attachés.") That was my foolproof reasoning as to why we should have nice champagne and dessert going away parties for them...which we will actually undoubtedly have. Woot.

Brits = better?

I was on the British Embassy web site looking for their mailing address, when I noticed the job listings. I passed one along to Krista and noticed two lovely tidbits. First, this paragraph:

The British Embassy Network offers a competitive salary and a strong benefits package. This package includes medical, dental, vision, life, long term and short term disability insurance, a 401(k) retirement savings plan, generous vacation and leave time, and an enriching training package.

OK, so I get *one* of those things at my embassy. Jealousss. That's a nice deal! Also, your work can be described thusly:

Quick and accurate research skills using electronic and printed resources, together with an awareness of current affairs, in order to find information that will add value to the work of Her Majesty’s Government

(P.S. That crown image is from an Armwrestling competition web site....)

Procrasti-Nation: Babying all the cheeses

This Slate article about procrastination is helping me do just that. There are a few choice quotes from people in various lines of work, including one from a guy I knew who played the mascot at Georgetown. It also includes disconcerting lines from people at the CIA and UN.

Here's one from Lindsey, an NFL cheerleader in Nashville, Tenn.:

One big thing we procrastinate on is tanning. We have to have color, because our uniforms are really light. But we have practices five times a week, and you don’t want to go in to practice smelling like tanning stuff—you’re already sweating, and you can’t spray and go to practice, anyhow, because it’ll all come off. It’s just disgusting. So you wait until 24 hours before the game, and then you go lay in a tanning bed for 10 to 12 minutes—just to get your body warm—and then you go right into the spray area to get sprayed. And then you can’t shower for eight hours, so you go home and you stink and you smell, and the next morning you’re all dark.

I also liked the cheesemonger (and the job title itself):

I hate doing maintenance work—cleaning compressors on refrigerators, that kind of thing. I always find a reason to do it later. … One thing I really enjoy doing is taking care of the cheese in the cave. I love going in there and babying all the cheeses, turning them over, making sure they have straw mats. … It’s a perfect way to kill some minutes at the store if I don’t feel like doing something more pressing. … Building and rebuilding the display is something I [also] get too into. It’s this weird Tetris game, it’s never perfect. I spent an hour or and hour-and-a-half every morning; I kind of obsess over it.

______ in Charge

I was, from Thanksgiving until this past Friday, without a boss. That is more than five months working as an "assistante" without someone to assist (but not that I was counting). Now, as the wheels of bureaucracy continue slowly turning, I have a chef who is a little bit taller than I am and who has asked me to speak to him in English.

Taking into consideration me, my boss, and my boss's deputy, I think our sector is the shortest within our office. Those two are 5'5" max.