Just curious about this one. The indexes to the Straight Dope books are all really well done (IMO) and I’ve got a kick out of them since well before I became an indexer myself. I was just wondering if Cecil/Cecil’s editor did them himself, or if they hired a pro, or what.
I’m going to guess it was a nun – I’ve seen a number of references to nuns working as indexers, although I don’t know if its a specific order that specializes in this or not.
Er… I know a lot of professional indexers, and none of them are nuns. I’m not saying it WASN’T a nun; just pointing out that book indexes are not strictly a nun thing.
All really well done? Well, given the lack of respect Cecil shows his editor, it probably wasn’t Little Ed. 
Where, please? This is a new one on me.
Scarlett, who’s not an indexer but knows where to find one
I’m going to third the wha? I’ve been a pro writer for 30 years and have never heard a single case of a nun doing an index. I’m not saying it never happened. But it is not common, that’s for sure.
I’ll ask Ed – but yeah, they’re very well done, I noticed that myself.
Unfortunately I don’t have any cites, but I know on at least two occasions I’ve read that the indexer turned out to be a nun. The latest – again from memory – was a few years ago, when a conservative writer was concerned about the indexing of his book. On investigation, he was told it was done by “a nice Christian lady” who, upon on further investigation, turned out to be a nun. This reminded me that, years earlier, someone else had mentioned in passing that a nun had done a book index. So I thought this might be a common practice within the industry, you know, something to keep them occupied and out of pool halls. Well, it looks like it isn’t.
It was, in fact, me. I’m not a nun. However, I did, at an early stage of life, study for the priesthood. This in itself proves nothing; so did Josef Stalin. However, while doing the indexes, I did experience … well, religious ecstasy is putting it a little strongly. But - and you have to admit, this is not something you can see the average person saying - I found doing the indexes a lot of fun. Glad you enjoyed them.
Ed, if you thought that was fun you should try doing a concordance. Why let the Bible and Shakespeare scholars have all the fun?
I had a feeling. They’re a little bit wittier and more clever than your typical index. And trust me, I’ve been indexing books for going on ten years now; I know all too well 1) how fun it can be in some circumstances, and 2) how many people find this akin to saying that you enjoy doing your taxes or getting a tooth filled.
I guess “fun” is subject to a wide interpretation.
I index books using a computer (which might not have been available for Ed, or of limited use back then), and all it is is flagging the important words or phrases with an invisible tag, then letting the software compile them into a complete index with page numbers. More tedium than fun, but then, some people have fun hitting their head against the wall.
The first index, if I remember correctly (it was in 1984), I did with index cards. This was tedious beyond the capacity of language to express. For subsequent indexes I used a macro I wrote in, let me think, dBase III+, I believe. It involved a lot more than simply flagging words, which to me sounds like stamping license plates; objectively I suppose I would have to describe it as quirky. But it worked for me.
Ed Zotti and quirky used in the same sentence. Who’da thunk? :eek:
Technically this is a concordance, not an index.
Wow, Ed; indexing on actual index cards! I knew those things were called that for some reason. 
Isn’t a concordance a listing of all the words used, not just the important ones? That’s a task that could be done effortlessly now, on a computer.
Right, as in Shakespeare concordances, etc. This certainly isn’t a concordance.
Hm. I guess I was using “concordance” to mean a list of certain words and phrases that appear in the book. If you’re only indexing actual text that actually appears in the book, then IMO that’s not really an index, although I suppose technically it’s not a true concordance, either. The classic example that I’ve seen is of a book about dogs that has a chapter on dog food. The word “nutrition” might not actually be found anywhere in the book, but it should probably appear in the index.
But neither is it a proper index. Just as people think copyeditors can be replaced with spell check, they think a computer can just compile an index. Contrary to popular belief, human skills are actually required. The computer can’t decide which references are worth indexing, or what appropriate cross-references might be, or how to organize and group subcategories for maximum usefulness, etc.
Yeah, definitely not in keeping with my carefully cultivated image.