"What do you do?" "I'm a brassiere salesman"

"What do you do?"

In this season of parties, this question is likely to come up, though many people find it annoying. It's as if the person asking is trying to pigeon-hole you, to reduce you to your occupation and, by extension, your social class and status. (Of course, sometimes it's just a desperate attempt to jump-start a conversation.)

A friend of my father's always answered this question by saying, "I'm a brassiere salesman," with a straight face. (He was actually an insurance agent.) He would then act bewildered or insulted if someone said they didn't believe him, and he would keep insisting that he was, in fact, "in sales -- brassieres". His message seemed to be "what the hell does it matter what I do?" He was a very popular guy, by the way.

I usually say I'm "an editor," which is true enough -- and just vague enough to circumvent any hasty conclusions.