More on rodent editors

Last week I wrote about conversations with People Who Think Editors Are Some Sort of Rodent. When I have these conversations with visitors at our church, the discussion is a little different owing to the confusing fact, for the visitors, that another woman at church works at a newspaper. When the visitors talk to her and then talk to me, this is usually what transpires:

V: "Oh, you're the one who works for the newspaper!"

M: "No, that's Doreen."

V: "But you're an editor?"

M: "Yes."

V: "You don't work for a newspaper?"

M: "No."

V: "But Doreen does."

M: "Yes."

V: "Is she an editor?"

M: "No."

At this point, most people are wishing they'd never heard of editors or newspapers -- newspapers never carry any positive news anyway, and since "Calvin & Hobbes" left the comics page there's nothing worth reading -- and they change the subject to something they can understand: the weather.

This is fine with me, because this way I don't have to explain what it is I actually do, which even I haven't been able to figure out after nine years.