Did A Department Store Really Keep A Guy On Staff To Be “Fired” In Front Of Angry Customers?

For this Labor Day holiday we thought we should pay tribute to what may have been the strangest ways to make a living in its time: the so-called "department store scapegoat" who was kept on staff to be "fired" from time to time. Plus: today in 1903, Scott Perky applied for a patent for a bidirectional typeface. Fact-Checking Steve Jobs: Was “The Customer Is Always Right” Really Coined by a Customer? (Slate) Scott Perky’s Bi-Directional Text (Weird Universe) If you don’t back us on Patreon today, we’ll have to fire Tom, because it’s his fault