Actually, etaoin shrdlu is the order of keys of the first two columns on the linotype keyboard ... etaoin and sh were tapped with the left hand, the rest with the right.

The reason they are so well known is that they used to frequently appear in error in newspapers when the operator filled a line out by running the forefinger of his left hand down those two columns on the keyboard.

I have an Advanced Trade Certificate in the use of the linotype machine. I last used on in anger in 1975, when computers displaced all our hard-won skills. Talk about ancient history!



The idiot also known as Capfka ...