KEY QUESTION

Help! What does ETAOIN SHRDLU mean!? It was used in a Times crossword puzzle last year, and again in Elaine May’s interview with Mike Nichols on March 3. It must have some meaning! I’ve spent 1 1/2 hours in the library researching this. Is it a West Coast thing? Please solve this mystery.

CAROLE PRICE

Clarksboro, N.J.

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Those letters make up the first two vertical rows on the keyboard of a Linotype machine, which until it was supplanted by those fabulous computing thingamajigs was used to produce this and other fine newspapers. A Linotype operator would type ETAOIN SHRDLU whenever a mistake caused a line to be unusable.