October 18, 2002
Friday Quiz #35: Getting Paid

This week's quiz question comes to us from the fine people at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the year 2000, the highest paid profession in the U.S. was physician. The next-highest profession was lawyer. (These figures are based on average annual salaries for employees in these professions).

What profession came in third?

(Note that an industry is not necessarily a profession, so these results pass over highly compensated jobs in the financial industry and such; "manager" is not a profession by these standards.)

The ethical participant will keep away from Google or handy copies of Labor Statistics for Dummies. First correct answer posted to comments wins a Sanrio "Bad Badtz-Maru" pencil case half-full of expired generic ibuprofen tablets.

Posted by BT at October 18, 2002 09:40 AM
Comments

Um... politician?

Posted by: KF on October 18, 2002 09:50 AM

Thank the gods...she's wrong sometimes. Nope.

Posted by: BT on October 18, 2002 09:55 AM

Website developer.

Posted by: boxjam on October 18, 2002 10:22 AM

Hey! Didn't you offer the "Bad BAdtz-Maru" pencil case in a previous quiz? Is this some kind of product endorsement site? Are you going to start charging us to play the quiz?

Well, if it's not Pet Psychic-Therapist, it's got to be Dentist, right?

Posted by: bootsy on October 18, 2002 10:26 AM

I assume dentist is a subset of doctor...

but nurse isn't.

Or maybe it's engineer?

Or pilot?

Or "guys who have figured out how to win the lottery"?

Posted by: Gavin on October 18, 2002 10:58 AM

Arthur Andersen.

Posted by: Jonathan on October 18, 2002 11:59 AM

"Arthur Anderson" didn't make the list, of course, because the department only considered legal forms of income.

I keep forgetting to ask folks to limit themselves to one guess per post; but I didn't, and honor the correct answer in the midst of the post by past victor (and next week's Guest Quizmaster) Gavin, who in his welter of guesses struck the bullseye. Pilot is indeed #3, squeaking in just ahead of Aerospace Engineer, Pharmacist, and then just about every kind of engineer you can name.

Writers, editors and professors, you will be shocked -- shocked! -- to hear, did not appear on the list.

Posted by: BT on October 18, 2002 12:10 PM

Financial advisor

Posted by: scott on October 18, 2002 02:43 PM

Athlete

Posted by: scott on October 18, 2002 03:35 PM

Athlete is a good one...how would you calculate the set? I wonder how many declared professional athletes there are in this country? And the number of those in relation to the number of writers...

Posted by: BT on October 18, 2002 04:09 PM

Actuaries?

Posted by: scott on October 18, 2002 04:58 PM

Bob Hope?

(I'm just bitter I didn't have time to guess that for last week's, to which it is actually funny. I did tack it on there earlier today.)

Posted by: scott on October 18, 2002 04:59 PM

You know, Scott, everytime you submit "Bob Hope," I think of :
http://www.eqi-clan.de/lego/lego-dope.html

{eek, no links allowed anymore?}

Posted by: bootsy on October 18, 2002 05:43 PM

That Bad Batz-Maru pencilcase will actually become valuable soon; apparently Sanrio is discontinuing the character.

Posted by: Gavin on October 20, 2002 04:20 PM

Oh, Bootsy, don't tell me you kids profane the name of the immortal (so far) Bob Hope by using it as some sort of rhyming slang for "wacky weed."

So is it like:

"Dude, your eyes are totally red."

"Yeah, well I've been on the road with Bing Crosby."

?

Posted by: scott on October 21, 2002 09:48 AM

**insert "(Thanks for the) Memories" weed joke here**

Posted by: BT on October 21, 2002 10:30 PM