Something of a dead giveaway...

So there I am, minding my own business, when an email comes in "over the transom." It's from someone working on a bid to provide simultaneous interpretation for a two-day assignment here in Houston in a couple of weeks.

Me, I'm not as terribly interested in doing interpretion work as I once was, and frankly, simultaneous interpretation was, for me, particularly stressful.

I was about to reply to the email with the names of some folks I know who do simul, when I spied the following text at the end of the email:

Also, do you know of anyone else that may be interested in this assignment? I think a second person will be needed for this assignment.

I debated the advisability of writing a nice, avuncular note, letting my correspondent know that having a "second person" available is not optional when it comes to simultaneous interpretation, and that wondering whether such a person is needed is a little like going out to hire a chef and then asking whether it'd be a good idea to provide a kitchen in which to work.

Actually, that's not exactly right. If the email had asked whether obtaining a booth, microphones, and so on for the meeting where simultaneous interpreters are to work was advisable, then my analogy would be more precise. At which point it occurred to me to wonder whether my correspondent had taken equipment into account, because simultaneous interpreters work without equipment only in the movies.

And then it occurred to me that I was wasting precious time. I was in the process of nailing an unconscionable number of words down for the latest Big Job™, and frankly, it was just not my week to tell people how to run their business. That may make me a bad person (though I doubt it), but there you have it.

Cheers...