There was a feature in an issue of MAD Magazine I read when I was eleven or twelve that was called something like “Jobs Someone Must Have”. I think everything I read in MAD was memorable to me because my mother wouldn’t buy it for me so whenever I saw an issue at a friend’s house I went straight to it. But this feature was memorable to because it was funny but also thought-provoking. It was jobs like “the person who paints the black dots on dice” and the only other one I can remember was “manhole cover designer”. Painting dots on dice is probably automated but designing sewer line covers is a real job. I wish I could remember the others because, even if it was tongue-in-cheek, there are a lot of jobs most of us don’t even realize are being done. And if I hadn’t already gotten the idea from MAD the summer I worked for a temp agency really made me think about it even more. Maybe you’ve walked by the end cap displays in a grocery store without thinking about them. I spent three weeks putting those together and moving them across a warehouse into trucks to be delivered across the country.
Manhole covers are just one example but they’re a distinctive one. Japan is famous for their unique designs, and because most I’ve seen are plain—at least the ones I happen to notice since I’m usually not looking down—it’s nice to see a distinctive one. Most large cities probably have some. Here’s just one list of some really incredible ones around the world.
The cover I photographed isn’t for a sewer line, of course, but is similar enough, and also someone had to design it. It happens to be outside the Blair School of Music. If you go into the library there you’ll see this. It’s not someone’s job to decorate the bust of Beethoven but I’m glad someone does. Anything that adds a little art to our lives is welcome.
I loved Mad Magazine when I was young. We actually had a subscription—I don’t think my parents realized how subversive it was!
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Hey, Chris! I read every issue of Mad Magazine when I was young and I also worked at a temp agency for two summers. It’s a living and I live for your blog posts.