# What are some stranger jobs that you've heard about? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 6, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533 "2011-06-06T19:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/21 "2011-06-07T12:42:30Z")
1. A friend of mine had a contract job to identify bodies in a cemetery that was being moved to make room for an airport. Apparently the headstones had been knocked down and the burial map lost, and they had to know which burials belonged to which headstones. This was an older cemetery. Can anyone guess why some of the faces were crushed? 2. In grad school we were sitting around bragging about who ever had the worst job. One woman worked for the company that made the sandwiches that go into vending machines. Her job was to apply chicken salad to a slice of bread, cover it with another slice of bread, and repeat. Eight hours a day. She won. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/22 "2011-06-07T12:47:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Similarly, I spent a summer as a temp just sitting in the reception area for a radiology clinic. \I read all of the back issues of the New Yorker in their pile, and then started to buy paperback novels from a nearby Waldenbooks. (That was the summer that I got introduced to Tom Clancy.) Lol! Wow - you reminded me of another summer job I had. I worked for a chain of eyeglass stores and came in each night from like 5:00 PM - 10:30 PM. My job was to sit in the computer room and make sure as each store closed that their daily sales record got transmitted in to our computer (about a 10 second job for each store then a 20 sec call to confirm receipt). Since most stores either closed at 5:30ish or 9:30ish, I had very little to do from 6 - 9 expect run a few reports for the accounting team. So I got to read for hours on end and went through 3-5 books a week. I ended up picking up tons of books at yard sales on the weekends to feed my addiction. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/23 "2011-06-07T13:21:08Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > During the 1970s I had a part-time job extracting venom from snakes, toads, spiders and scorpions. How did you do it? I’ve seen it done for snakes, but toads? Spiders? I can imagine the scorpion. You should totally put “toad milker” on your resume. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/24 "2011-06-07T13:24:56Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > 1. A friend of mine had a contract job to identify bodies in a cemetery that was being moved to make room for an airport. Apparently the headstones had been knocked down and the burial map lost, and they had to know which burials belonged to which headstones. This was an older cemetery. Can anyone guess why some of the faces were crushed? Best user name/post combo ever. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/25 "2011-06-09T13:25:30Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > How did you do it? I’ve seen it done for snakes, but toads? Spiders? I can imagine the scorpion. > > You should totally put “toad milker” on your resume. Toad-milker. I like that. But wouldn’t rattlesnake-wrangler be more bad ass? I usually reveal the weirder aspects of my early career after I get hired. The snakes were done in the way you have probably seen, fangs through a membrane over a beaker. That’s pretty easy and straight-forward. Scorpions and toads were a little more difficult. For scorpions, we had to put them into a glass container, stimulate the area of their sting with a mild electric current, which caused them to discharge some venom. We would the collect the venom with a syringe or a pipette. With toads, we would hold a glass slide below their paratoid glands and stimulate the glands with electricity. Spiders were the most difficult, and I have very little experience with them. The lab had its first contract for black-widow venom while I worked there. Black widows are relatively small and delicate, so we experimented with wolf spiders first. The method we arrived at involved putting the spider in a plastic container that had a few holes in it to allow us to insert thin plastic probes and our electrical contacts. We would cool the spider to reduce its desire to move, place a plastic probe behind its chelicerae where the fangs are, and hit it with some current. A tiny amount of venom usually came out of the fangs when we did this. It would usually adhere to the plastic probe, but sometimes we had to collect it from the bottom of the container. Either way, the amounts were so small we had to use capillary tubes to collect it. Spiders were definitely injured during the fulfillment of that contract. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/26 "2011-06-09T13:58:49Z")
I have a couple of buddies who specialize in cemetery restoration. Essentially they get asked by some civic association or something who owns/runs an old cemetery to survey the place, categorize the headstones and monuments, and then submit an estimate giving different options based on the number and conditions of the monuments. Assuming they get hired, they then set about straightening headstones, building new bases, repairing the monuments that they can, and for the worst ones (usually broken into many pieces and fragile stone), they reconstruct them and set them flat in concrete. They also do conservation work on stuff like crypts and monuments; I think one of the two of them would be qualified to do repair work on things like the Tomb of the Unknowns- he’s up on grouts and stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/27 "2011-06-10T01:55:53Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > It always sort of amuses me when people get upset because the Amish buy disposable diapers or ride in cars or whatever. “Your anti-technology sect does not live up to my standards of what an anti-technology sect should act like!” > > I’m by no means an expert on the Amish, but I’ve done some reading up on them. Their beliefs are mostly centered around keeping close ties between family and community, and they feel that technology generally leads to weakening those ties. So a beach vacation with someone else driving is OK, but owning the actual car might lead to you driving off by yourself or whatever. It’s really pretty interesting stuff. In my opinion. 😛 I’m not annoyed that they ride in cars. I don’t judge other’s religions, because honestly all religions kind of have gray areas. To be honest, all religions have a lot of bullshit. I do find something really weird about considering something wrong and not agreeing with others who do it, but allowing others to do it to/for you. To use a nonreligious example, it would like if I said I don’t do drugs but you have weed I can smoke it. 😕 Using that logic (not your’s, the Amish logic), couldn’t always just get on a horse and run away? I’m pretty sure, you could get pretty far on a horse if your intention was to run away (ditch your family). ---
**Author:** ![Fat\_Chance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8baadc/32.png) [@Fat\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fat_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/28 "2011-06-10T04:21:25Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Most Amish communities have a community phone, located somewhere central, so that they can call out in case of emergency, or for situations like this. Maybe a bit of a hijack, but I always find stuff like this interesting. Certain groups of people make laws/rule/customs against something for religious purposes…BUT, have the exception, just in case. Kind of seems hypocritical to me, but whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Fat\_Chance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8baadc/32.png) [@Fat\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fat_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/29 "2011-06-10T04:26:34Z")
> [@Fat\_Chance](#): > > Maybe a bit of a hijack, but I always find stuff like this interesting. Certain groups of people make laws/rule/customs against something for religious purposes…BUT, have the exception, just in case. Kind of seems hypocritical to me, but whatever. Didn’t realize someone else said almost the same exact thing! Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/30 "2011-06-10T06:48:03Z")
Not to hijack too much on the subject of Amish-haulers and Shabbos Goyim, but… There’s actually a huge range in what Amish and Mennonites (and others I’m surely less aware of) consider acceptable technology-wise. The key thing to remember is that it’s not a religious commandment, but a way of keeping the community together - it’s a means, not an ends. Also, almost all of it is more along the lines of ‘it’s easier to ditch your family if you can hop in a car than if you have to ride a horse’ than ‘thou shalt not sitteth in a horseless carriage. Eth.’ Basically, the idea is that it’s fantastic to benefit from technology (thus the phone to call 911 if necessary) but only so long as it doesn’t detract from the community (so cell phones aren’t so hot, since it means you can chat with your friends from outside the community instead of your family). So, for instance, taking a family trip to the beach is great, whether you’re in a car or not, but OWNING the car makes it too easy to jaunt off to the city for something all the time. Sure, you could jaunt off to the city on your horse, but that’s more of a hassle, so less of a danger. And if you have to arrange the cab ride through the central phone, where everyone can hear you, you’re less likely to arrange one just for yourself. As I said, there’s a broad range of opinions on what’s acceptable - individual communities sit down and work out for themselves what they think is dangerous to the community, and what is useful enough to be allowed. So, there are Mennonites with cars and cell phones, Mennonites with a communal car and a village phone, and Mennonites who won’t use either, nohow, noway. Now, the subject of the Shabbos goy is a little different - traditionally, Judaism has a whole bunch of rules that only apply to Jews, and very few that are universal. And that’s not “you’d be a better person if you did this stuff, but oh well, you’re not Jewish, what can we expect”, but “God made a contract with Jews to do this stuff, so we have to, but you’ve got no obligations”. So, while there’s a lot of discussion (this IS Judaism we’re talking about, after all) about what’s legit and what’s not, that has a lot more to do with whether you can ask, hint, or pay the goy in question for what you want them to do. There’s a pretty broad range (and bear in mind, a small minority of Jews actually keep Shabbat), but in my experience (limited) the most common is that it’s okay to sort of hint that you want something done, but not to ask. Alternately, I’ve heard a lot of stories about paid Shabbos goyim, although I’ve never met anyone who’s hired or been one. Sorry for the lengthy hijack, but it’s a subject that fascinates me - I used to think the same way, that A) the rules were universal, i.e., all Amish people were forbidden cars and B) they were rules at all, not just general guidelines. Turns out, not so much. Interesting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/31 "2011-06-10T22:07:27Z")
When I was in college, I had a friend who was a biology major. He got a job working for a cancer researcher. The researcher was looking at a drug that was thought to be effective, but the fear was that it screwed up the reproductive system. They were doing trials on dogs. His job was to collect samples for analysis. He was a beagle masturbator (obviously not his offical title). When the research was over, they were going to destroy the dogs, but he had become so attached to them (and them to him) that he tried to find homes for them all. No thanks, I don’t want a genetically messed up dog that expects a hand job every time he sees me. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533/32 "2011-06-10T22:42:45Z")
I spent a year running the tongue saw at a slaughter house [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-stranger-jobs-that-youve-heard-about/584533.md?page=1)