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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
1. The great Jenn Thompson (not the Olympic swimmer) is working on a story about jobs with unclear titles, like Best Boy or Key Grip. Are there any job titles you’ve always wondered about? Let Jenn know and she’ll figure things out.
2. I’m putting together a quiz about quirky cup sizes, and I could really use your help finding two more examples. Have you been baffled by the size-naming conventions of a chain near you? (I’ve already covered Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Sonic, Burger King, Del Taco, Cold Stone, Carlos ‘n Charlie’s and a few others.)
Many thanks in advance!
Indie Coffee (Madison, WI) named their sizes after the lakes in the area: Wingra is the smallest, Monona is medium, and Mendota is large.
posted by Jess Blue on 8-13-2008 at 6:24 pm
What does the solicitor general do?
posted by Lacey on 8-13-2008 at 6:34 pm
what exactly does an Actuary do?
posted by Brian on 8-13-2008 at 6:35 pm
What is an ombudsperson?
posted by Nicole on 8-13-2008 at 6:47 pm
What does a computer analyst analyze, exactly?
posted by me on 8-13-2008 at 7:01 pm
What gets someone the title “esquire”? What does an esquire do?
You could probably just write the article going down the movie end credits.
posted by Nathan on 8-13-2008 at 7:32 pm
Why is that hospital guy called an “orderly”?
posted by Karen on 8-13-2008 at 7:55 pm
One thing about drink sizes that drives me nuts goes something like this:
“What size do you want”
“”Small”
“We don’t have small, we only have Medium and Large.”
First, you can’t call something Medium unless it’s between two other sizes (or has psychic powers).
Also no matter what fun little name your fooditriom has given it, when a customer asks for small, they want the smallest size you have.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 8-13-2008 at 8:25 pm
Ombudsman. It’s great fun to say, I have no idea what it is, and I might have to contact one soon.
posted by Aemi on 8-13-2008 at 8:39 pm
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran article today (Wed 8/13) about how not all coffee is filld the same…. (Not weird cup sizes, but interesting to your question, I thought)
Basically, how the coffee shops “short” the customer –
www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=782690
(that’s one link — no breaks)
enjoy your java…
posted by WizardBoy on 8-13-2008 at 9:20 pm
Totally thought you were talking about bra sizes for a minute.
posted by Jill on 8-13-2008 at 9:22 pm
Wendy’s changed the meaning of its cup sizes about a year or so ago. Small is now value, medium is small, large is medium, and the amount in what they call large should not be drunk by a human in one sitting.
Of course, this coincided with their value meals starting with small, medium and large sizes. So when you order a value meal, they automatically ask you if you want a medium. To cost you more money for more beverage.
posted by Liz on 8-13-2008 at 9:38 pm
Cup sizes? you must have meant bra cup sizes- WHY are they all different? Vicky’s Secret has a different size than Macys and other unmentionables Where did all this variety come from?
posted by Ashley on 8-13-2008 at 9:54 pm
Once upon a time I worked at a Hardees which had the distinction of having 4 sizes of cups - small, regular, medium, and large. Naturally, there was no cup display that indicated the large size of the “medium”, so many people who ordered medium, expecting the 20 ounce size of the regular, instead recieved a giant 32 ounce paper cup. After a while, I began showing the size of the two cups to the previously unsuspecting customers.
posted by chia on 8-13-2008 at 10:33 pm
A comprehensive survey of what exactly sureyors do, with their tripods and lenses and other guys standing a few hundred meters away. Why does it take so long?
posted by Johnny Cat on 8-13-2008 at 10:48 pm
Cold Stone Ice Cream has the cup sizes “Like It”, “Love It”, & “Gotta Have It” for Small, Medium, & Large.
posted by Heather Brown on 8-14-2008 at 12:28 am
How about the 7-eleven gulp sizes
the big gulp
the super big gulp
and the double gulp
posted by Kenneth on 8-14-2008 at 12:39 am
I’ve always been curious as to what a ‘Gaffer’ is. That and the Surgeon General. What exactly do they preside over?
I haven’t seen any weird cup names (I and my warped mind went an ENTIRELY different direction when I first read that lol) but I’ve seen a lot of discrepancies in relative size. At some fast food places, the smallest drink you can get is only a tenths of an ounce less than a big gulp while others are practically the size of a thimble (and cost the same)
posted by heather on 8-14-2008 at 2:30 am
Bali had some A/B sizes a while back, which is pretty quirky. I don’t know if they still so.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-14-2008 at 3:06 am
I never got the whole movie producer thing. What do they do? Why do so many actors become producers? And why are there 10 producers on some movies? Co-producer, producer, semi–kind of-not really producer, you get the idea.
posted by Tricia on 8-14-2008 at 3:39 am
Did you hear the one about the police looking for a midget fortune teller?
Apparently there’s a small medium at large.
posted by Steve on 8-14-2008 at 4:00 am
I really think you should look into the bra sizes. Maybe your story will change the lives of women everywhere when they see your reporting.
posted by Julie on 8-14-2008 at 5:55 am
What does the Head Dolly do when listed in movie credits?
posted by Ari on 8-14-2008 at 6:00 am
Here in our state capital’s (Montpelier, VT) coffeehouse, Capital Grounds we have the following sizes, in order from small to large:
Conservative (8 oz)
Moderate (12 oz)
Liberal (16 oz)
Radical (20 oz)
They brew Bob’s House Blend and Bob’s Senate Blend, and off a blended frozen coffee drink called the Capital Chill
posted by Rebekah on 8-14-2008 at 6:09 am
I don’t have a shop with unusual cup sizes, but this comic can only enhance any article on the issue:
www.wetherobots.com/2007/11/26/drei-und-zwanzig/
posted by Steve on 8-14-2008 at 6:23 am
Not unusual cup sizes, per se, but our local 24 hour coffeehouse Coffee Cartel has sample cups on display. Each one is labeled, for example: “Small, 12 oz., NOT TALL, NOT SHORT”. I guess people order like they would do in Starbucks and it annoyed the workers. Only place I’ve seen cups labeled with what they AREN’T called.
posted by Toyouke on 8-14-2008 at 7:53 am
Again with the bra cup sizes, why do women’s clothing come in size numbers? It work exceedingly well for men to have waste and length built into all pants, including the EXACT SAME waste measurement for underwear.
A woman could wear size 6 underwear and size 10 pants. Where’s the logic in that?
Oh, and bra size AA is SMALLER than A, but DD is LARGER than D? Who made up these rules?
posted by Benjamin M. Strozykowski on 8-14-2008 at 8:17 am
Wendy’s cup sizes. I have to have them point to the cups and tell me the sizes bcuz they don’t correlate to normal sizes for any other foodservice place.
posted by gc3160 - Julie on 8-14-2008 at 8:51 am
@ Benjamin: Men.
@ Steve: Oh man, how apropos.
And… while it has nothing to do with unusual size names, I would like to note that getting a soda at the movies, where if you’ve already decided to significantly lighten your wallet to get one, they are constantly asking if you want to upgrade your size for an additional 50-cents or so. Is it not bad enough that you’re willing to pay $3-$5 for a 12-oz cup? And if you do upgrade you end up with something like Liz’s abovementioned large that if you weren’t sharing with your five best buddies, there would be no humanly way to drink it during the course of one hour-and-change long movie. I want a return to sanity, people!
::sigh:: Sorry. I had to get that one off my chest.
Recaptcha: accord reason….
posted by ACuteAngle on 8-14-2008 at 8:53 am
@Ben - I have always wondered all those things, especially the bra sizes. No logic whatsoever.
posted by Debbie on 8-14-2008 at 8:54 am
I was wondering about esquire a few days ago, according to Wikipedia, in the U.S. it is commonly used to refer to licesnsed attorneys. HOWEVER, there is no official requirement to use the title Esquire, so anyone can use it. I know what is going on my next batch of business cards
posted by dfw, esq. on 8-14-2008 at 9:37 am
As far as bra sizes go, I can tell you that someone who wears a DD isn’t worried about the size of a AA and vice-versa, so maybe it doesn’t really matter…
@Benjamin: It would be incredibly depressing for women (e.g. me) to buy clothes in the actual number of inches needed. Also, women’s clothing comes in so many different cuts and styles, it would be hard. What would we do for dress sizes?
posted by Lindsey on 8-14-2008 at 10:01 am
Wendy’s has their standard small, medium, and large, but their smallest drink is actually the value size (16 ozs). So if you order a small you get what is effectively their medium size. Not sure if this makes the cut, but it did cause confusion when I was there last.
posted by Jon on 8-14-2008 at 10:25 am
1. YEah, those people at the end of the movie credits always get me, like the Gaffer. Also, the casting is always done by someone who is a “C.S.A.”, you have to be certified to Cast or something?
I’d think of more, but if I think of any more, I could wind up just looking them up.
posted by Zach on 8-14-2008 at 10:35 am
The titles for flight attendents doesn’t make sense to me. What exactly is a purser?
Also odd drink size names: 7-eleven
posted by Brandon on 8-14-2008 at 11:45 am
How about a precise explanation for the job title “Fluffer”? hahaha
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 8-14-2008 at 12:00 pm
Ditto to Tricia. And also why the do they really need an assistant to the assistant director…we call them errand boys at my old job!
posted by marty on 8-14-2008 at 2:39 pm
At the Rock Pasta (www.therockwfp.com), they have a drink that comes in “Bucket” size.
posted by Christian on 8-14-2008 at 5:03 pm
I tell people all the time “I’m a buyer.”
Next question is, “What’s that?”
posted by Mary Sue on 8-14-2008 at 5:04 pm
I have started ordering drinks by indicating how tall I want my cup to be and saying, “Whatever size this is.”
posted by m on 8-17-2008 at 12:46 pm
I am confused about the difference between titles of magazine editors: editor-in-chief, editor at large, executive editor, senior editor, managing editor, etc… what do all of these people do in relation to a magazine?
posted by Tatiana on 8-18-2008 at 4:02 pm