You Down with OED? Yeah You Know Me

Quick multiple choice trivia question for those who love arcane facts... or for those hardcore palaeotypographists out there:

According to a 1688 quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary, what is the typography-related definition of bake?

A. “When Letters stick together in distributing… This is called the Letter is Baked.”
B. “Moulten lead overpours the cast... It is said the Letter is Baked.”
C. “A blank left in printing through the accidental covering of a portion of the ‘forme’ by the frisket. … This is called the Forme is Baked.”
D. “Melting of damaged or discarded sorts… This is to bake the Hellbox.”

Nick Martens explores this and other fun, archaic printing terms found in the OED over at the Bygone Bureau. Oh, and you can find the answer there, too.

Obselete Professions

Over at NPR, they have a great little featurette on obsolete professions. In words and photos, the former occupations they explore include river driver, copy boy, and lector. Not surprisingly, the bygone jobs that resonate with us most are those of typesetter and pinsetter. You can even hear pingirl Nancy Richmond recall her days at the bowling alley, clearing deadwood and uprighting the pins.

As a kid, Duckpin's Pete and his brother James would frequent the basement duckpin alley at the local YMCA, where the pinsetting was manual. We each took our turns in the pit dodging the flying pins. Even more dangerous than the flying pins were our own friends. They liked to play chicken with us, intentionally hurling balls at us as we were setting up the pins. Let's just say bowling balls and shins don't mix. Not all the marks at that alley were on the score sheet.