I have often stated here how much I love irony. Here’s a wonderful instance. I’ve pointed out that trying to get at shades of meaning in words by quoting dictionary definitions is a losing game, because dictionaries only manage gross generalities. People why try to do it in political discussions, e.g., always look bad.
Yet here is the one in one hundred case in which citing the dictionary is the perfect response.
Thirteen basic definitions! And yet Omar wants us to bow before only one. It is to laugh. I love irony.
Perhaps, but when I was about 11 or 12, I occasionally delivered my older brother’s morning route when he couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I don’t remember a deadline, but I seem to recall getting up about 5 a.m. to do it. Maybe the kids these days can’t get up that early…
I think this is more likely. When I was 14, I had my own route, an evening one. I could walk it in about an hour or less. But since newspapers have lost so much circulation, they’ve had to consolidate the routes, so now they’re much longer, despite (I expect) having about the same number of customers per route.
BTW, I never threw my newspapers. The houses in that neighborhood all had mailboxes with an attached rack for the paper. I walked up to the porches and put it in that.
The newspaper policy here (as stated below its masthead) that the daily paper must be delivered by 6 AM and the weekend paper by 9. BTW, some years ago I had an elderly gentleman (probably retired) who consistently delivered the daily paper after 6 and always had the same excuse: some problem with the delivery of the paper to him.
By your definition, the 13 year old kid on his bike delivering papers is also a professional. Yet you want to distinguish between the kid and an adult in their car. I see no distinguishment in any of the definitions.
I guess I would consider a kid delivering papers on his bike to have the equivalent of a part-time job, just as a kid working 15 hours a week at a fast food joint does. It may be his primary income, but he doesn’t depend on it to support himself or his family, generally. He’s earning college fund money or pocket money.
A kid on a bike also does not deliver 250-550 papers, as adult carriers usually do. For these people, this is a primary source of income. It’s what they do for a living; it is, per the definitions posted by mapcase a means of livelihood. Much as a person may be a professional golfer, singer, writer, builder…whether they have a degree or certificate or not.
Then again, if a kid wants to consider himself a professional at his part-time job, and he behaves professionally as he performs it, why would it be any skin off my nose? Live and let live, I say! Life is too short to get your panties in a twist about such things.
