Unless the fellow is an immensely gifted communicator, don’t expect him to hold audiences rapt when he talks shop.
But it is only the most unfortunate of circumstances, the incidence of an earthquake, where our fellow can get to shine. If he is even slightly presentable, his phone will be ringing off the hook. One television channel after the other would want him to explain not just the quake but also weigh on the probability and intensity of aftershocks.
These proverbial fifteen minutes would also help the fellow’s rishta prospects.
In the aftermath of what is unimaginatively called Calibrigate, experts on fonts are in demand. On normal days, these fellows make the seismologists look like rock stars (no pun intended) in comparison. Not to be confused with the graphic designers who actually use fonts, these are the nerds who just love talking about fonts and discussing their different variations. They can be found on specialist internet fora spouting out a particular font’s date of creation and commercial release; the effects they can have on the mood of the person reading any material in a particular font; they can have long, drawn out debates, on what font would be suitable for novels of a particular genre, and which font would make a better fit for technical manuals.
A demonstrably vast knowledge of fonts isn’t the sort of thing that can get ladies’ hearts racing and inspire little kids to rewrite their “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up” essays. But these fellows certainly are having their day in the sun.
Consider Thomas Phinney, self described “font detective” who, when he is not busy at his job as CEO of FontLab, is busy arguing and answering questions on fonts on various internet fora.
In the aftermath of the current flurry of interest in fonts, he wrote on Quora, the online Q & A format social media platform, about how pleased he was that it was finally night time in Pakistan so he could get a break from the questions. One still thinks Phinney should savour the moment while it lasts.
One owes gratitude to niche experts who slug it out in anonymity while the rest of the world is exploring interesting topics.
There was a hilarious New Yorker cartoon once featuring four men wearing the uniforms of professional competitive ice-sled luge players and one man wearing a suit and a hat, holding a briefcase, saying, “Look, guys. Some day – and I’m not saying that day is today – you will be glad you brought along a lawyer.”
Well, depending on the circumstances, we will be lucky that we have, at our disposal, experts in moths. Or bats. Or the history of Lucknow, circa 1847-1888.
