Day of a Scientist 159 



with a list of questions which served to get the day started. 

 Mrs. MacAvoy was a real jewel. Actually, he had known 

 her for over twenty years, and they were on a first-name 

 basis. Her husband had been one of the most promising 

 students in Bill's time but had volunteered promptly for the 

 Navy and had been killed while testing some of the early 

 radar models under conditions of active service. She had 

 been taken in as a typist in the department and had worked 

 herself up to a position of indispensabiUty and considerable 

 power. She greeted him with a smile which combined old 

 friendship, considerable respect, and a self-confident assur- 

 ance that everything would go well if he just paid attention 

 to her questions. 



"Good morning. Bill, you'll want to see this right off. 

 The National Science Foundation has just written to say 

 that the appropriation for Bob Smith's work has been 

 granted in just the amount you asked for. Here's the ac- 

 knowledgment for you to sign. The rest of the mail is rou- 

 tine and can wait. I'll draft some rephes when I get a 

 moment during the day. Here's what you dictated yesterday, 

 and here's the second draft of your paper for the Biochemica 

 Acta except for the graphs which the photo department 

 hasn't returned yet. Incidentally, that new girl in the typing 

 pool is a whiz, but I'm afraid she'll be leaving in three or 

 four months to have a baby. 



"Next, I'm afraid, is a headache. I can't make head or 

 tail of that paper Stan Roberts just handed in for typing. 

 He can't write worth a darn, and the tables don't fit with 

 what he says in the text. I'm afraid you'll just have to have 

 a look at it yourself." 



"OK, I'll stick it in my briefcase and work on it over 

 the weekend. Sometimes I wonder what those guys in the 

 EngHsh department do to earn their pay. None of their 

 graduates seem to know how to write an understandable 



