The Maine Pain Point

I have a new legal clerk who started working for me recently, who was hired to help sort and scan incoming mail. We’ve had a lot of issues with her, mostly regarding attendance and timeliness, but this one takes the cake.

I was finishing up a report for my boss when she came up to me with a document she needed help sorting.

New Clerk: “What does ‘ME’ stand for?”

Okay, no problem, that’s an unusual state, we don’t file a lot of cases there (yet), and I get tripped up on it sometimes, too.

Me: “Maine. That’s, oh, yeah, see, it says right up here at the top, ‘State of Maine.'”

New Clerk: “Oh, thanks. I never heard of that before.”

I think I blinked at her twice before I was able to speak.

Me: “…The state of Maine?”

New Clerk: “Yeah.”

Me: “…It’s the…” *Gesturing vaguely over my head.* “Up at the top… up by… it’s the northernmost…”

She just kept staring at me with a fixed smile on her face, like she knew I was saying words but could not comprehend them.

Me: “…Yeah. This can just go under the white sheet.”

New Clerk: “Okay, thanks!”

She is a fully grown woman with multiple children who was born and raised in America.