In the days of handwritten T-accounts, it was mandatory in German bookkeeping to bring the end-figures of the left and right side of the ledger to an even keel with the drawing of the peculiarly-but-aptly-called "Buchhalternase" (a "bookkeeper's nose").
It was a required "rites of passage" for a newcomer to the profession to be sent by one's boss to a stationer's shop (whose sales staff had been prepared in advance) to purchase such a "bookkeeper's nose".
And so it was that, shortly after having started my articled years at the tender age of 14, I was standing in a German stationer's shop, earnestly discussing with the very attentive but strangely merry sales staff the shape and size and price of a "bookkeeper's nose".
Several years later, it was my turn to perpetuate this practical joke on young novices. I wonder if similar "rites of passage" still exist in today's computer-age!
