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Rhuby comments: ...akin to your "featherbedding, but the workers were taken from existing staff left over from when there was either more work, or most likely, when there was less technology that did away with the necessity for so many skilled people.
Pretty much the origin of featherbedding. The classic example was the fireman, a holdover from the days of coal fired steam engines, being required on the crew of a diesel locomotive.
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Carpal Tunnel
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fireman, a holdover from the days of coal fired steam engines,when "firemen" shovelled the coal into the boiler.
Which is why most members of Fire Departments ask to be called "firefighters" rather than firemen.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Which is why most members of Fire Departments ask to be called "firefighters" rather than firemen.I didn't know that! Thanks, wow. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Which is why most members of Fire Departments ask to be called "firefighters" rather than firemen.Not here. They're still called firemen, even the women ... and they don't wanna change. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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<<They're still called firemen, even the women>>
Interesting how a chairperson may be a chairman, but no chairman would ever be a chairperson and, so,
a chairperson is always a chairwoman. So far ahead, so little headway.
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but no chairman would ever be a chairperson That depends, IP. If your publication style guide calls for "chairperson," everyone's a person! And I have known men to use chairperson (of themselves) in the interest of political correctness. Or there's always the gender-neutral "chair." 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Or there's always the gender-neutral "chair."I have long preferred "chair", simply because it focuses attention on the office, rather than the officeholder, which seems to me to be eminently sensible.
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I have long preferred "chair", simply because it focuses attention on the office, rather than the officeholder, which seems to me to be eminently sensible
Never thought of it that way, Max, but you're right. Given the choice between chairperson and chair, I, too, prefer the latter. And now you've given me a reasonable justification for using it. Thank you!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you!
NP, YW 
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re: chairperson/chairman Perhaps my title should read "journeyperson," not "journeyman"!
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