Gordon Watts has become The Margin Lady (and that’s a sequel to the original margin lady story).

One of the things I’m responsible? Make sure the figures are done right. Make sure everyone uses the same units. Make sure everyone is printing on A4 paper. Make sure the margins are right!

I am the margin lady! Shoot me now!

I’ve bet on the over/under for hyphens added to documents I’ve sent in for review. And I recall going into the “Yeah, we got that” store, asking for A4 paper, and being told that they didn’t carry it. (I ended up buying it on my trip across the pond to the conference. The remaining supply is carefully guarded in an undisclosed location)

As for the original Margin-Lady interaction in grad school, I had my tangles with her, including an omission on the copyrights page, which needed to include the phrase “all rights reserved,” despite another page in the submission package where I was required to sign away my copyright, so it made no sense to include the phrase. Of course, logic is a puny weapon against bureaucracy.