RIP EXALTED CYCLOPS

A bracing addendum to the fawning obituaries of Robert Byrd, courtesy of The Economist's Schumpeter blog:

I missed an important organisation in last week's column on job-title inflation: the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr Byrd held the titles of Exalted Cyclops and Kleagle (recruiter) for the Klan in West Virginia. Other Klan job titles include Grand Imperial Wizard (CEO), Grand Magi (vice-president), Grand Scribe (secretary), Grand Dragon of the Realm (vice-president), Hydra (assistant to the vice-president), Grand Titan of the Dominion (regional vice-president), Grand Titan of the Province (assistant regional vice-president), Lictor (security guard) and Night Hawk (night watchman). Ordinary members were known as ghouls.

Byrd had plenty of other titles in the rest of his career, including Senate minority leader, Senate majority leader and president pro tempore of the United States Senate, but none had quite the resonance of Exalted Cyclops.

As a proper four-eyes, I dare say I'm succumbing to some real job-title envy right now. If only I wasn't weighed down by the sand-bags of racial tolerance, perhaps I could reach similarly exalted heights.