Characteristics of an Editor?

From Arthur Plotnik, "The Elements of Editing":

What kind of person makes a good editor? When hiring new staff, I look for such useful attributes as genius, charisma, adaptability, and disdain for high wages. I also look for signs of a neurotic trait caled compulsiveness, which in one form is indispensable to editors, and in another, disabling.

This was posted to the copyeditors' Listserv. It's a very useful way to get questions answered and discuss all things "edity." The archives are a good place to search for answers.

There was a huge discussion over the past few days about the word "penultimate" that had to be squashed by the "list mom" because it was getting out of hand. Who would have thought that someone could say so much about one word?