Remember the report we ran here not long ago on what TIME's editors are like? Well, turn about is fair play; so we are prepared this week to dissect TIME's editorial researchers--having just submitted all 50 of them to a rather arduous and revealing questionnaire. I can now report that the composite TIME researcher is a neat 5 ft.-6 in., 126-lb., 26-year-old unmarried blue-eyed brownette who is glad to state that she has worked hard enough during her year and nine months on TIME to lose an undisclosed number of pounds.

Ten years younger than the average TIME editor, she does not, of course, share his experience (14 years) in journalism. Half of our researchers came to us by applying for their jobs, by recommendation of other researchers or editors, or by chance; the rest turned up via our college-trainee system, as copy girls, etc. All but a few have held other jobs--as researchers of all types; reporters, copyreaders and editors for various periodicals; as private secretaries, ballistics experts, ski salesmen, economic analysts. One spent ten years in the U.S. Foreign Service; another taught riveting & drilling in an industrial plant.

Unlike our editors, who came from all over the U.S., a majority of TIME's researchers grew up in the Eastern states and abroad. Naturally, the colleges and universities they went to (85% got degrees) are largely Eastern --Vassar, Smith, Barnard, Skidmore, etc. Those educated in other countries list the universities of Geneva, Toronto, British Columbia, and Istanbul's Robert College. About a fourth of them went on to graduate school.

Their familiarity with the world-at-large outside of the U.S. is impressive. Most of them have been abroad (to a total of 40-odd countries), and 32% have lived in one or more foreign countries all over the world. As a result almost all (85%) of them speak one or more foreign languages (including Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Turkish), and a number can get along fluently in three, four or five.

As for the details and idiosyncrasies of their private lives, the researchers, being naturally discreet, had this to say about themselves: Not too thin, not too fat, most of them are "just about right." Half declared that they dress well; the rest "so-so." Asked to decide whether they considered themselves "feminine," "sporty," or "brainy," some claimed the prerogative of being all; the others chose one or another category, dividing themselves about evenly among the three. One said she couldn't decide right now because she was "frightfully frustrated."

None admits to being a tightwad, but 53% say they are certainly extravagant. Most of them live in New York City (alone, with families, roommates, husbands)--pursue a variety of hobbies from "catching up on sleep," collecting sea shells and antique jewelery, to studying economics--see a movie, a play, a concert apiece about once a month--wear an evening dress about once a year, spectacles part of the time. Altogether they own a total of five cats, three dogs and a horse. They smoke steadily (a pack of cigarettes a day), and only one is a teetotaler.

About 85% of our researchers are unmarried, so we assumed that their response to the question "What would you rather do than to be a researcher?" would be on the domestic rather than career side. Not so. Although one said that she would love to "edit a family edition of my own," and another complained that "no intelligent, well-read, well-to-do, well-built, music-loving farmer has applied"--most of them want to be a writer, editor, correspondent, or a TIME researcher. Not one, however, said she wanted to be a publisher. Smart girls!

Cordially,

P.S. To be continued next week.

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