You know how, when you're in elementary school, you're supposed to learn all the abbreviations for all the states? And it seems like a huge waste of time, because the post office delivers the mail by zip codes (and it must seem like even more of a waste of time today, because elementary school kids probably all just send text messages).

Well, it turns out that not knowing them can cause embarrassment at work. Not for me....

since such things fall into the catagory of "almost useless information" I can remember all of them easily even the tricky ones like Maine (ME) and Iowa (IA).

However, one of our least liked field people sent me an e-mail today asking what the hold up was with an application. I explained that the forms were for the state of Wisconsin (WI), but the applicant stated that he lives in Wyoming (WY). "The Guy is in Wisconsin!" she wrote back, in all caps.

Tact really is the art of telling somebody to go to hell in such a way that they'll look forward to the trip. I have no wish to yank anybody's chain, especially being new in my own position and very likely to make mistakes myself. "Well, the common abbreviation for Wyoming is WY. If he lives in Cheyenne, Wisconsin maybe he didn't know the abbreviation to use and used the wrong one. In that case, he'll still need to fill the forms out over again."

Haven't heard from her since.

Sadly, that was the highlight of my day.