Never Too Old to Learn Something New

Found out today where Joe the Camel came from.  Very interesting....

If You Want the Operator Dial 0

Do people not know how to read phone books anymore? Or do they even bother trying to locate one? Everyone seems to call the Ref Desk in order to locate phone numbers these days, which is okay but it goes a little above and beyond my call of duty when they insist that I dial the number first to see if the party they are seeking actually lives there.  If I can't manage to find the listing in the phone book or criss-cross directory I assume that the number is unlisted or they have a cell phone instead of a land line. 

Try explaining all this to a severly deaf and emphatic senior citizen who swears that they once called this number in 1978 and their friend Gloria answered. This request for phone information can soon segue into a multi-state obituary search if one is not adept at their phone reference skills. Doesn't anyone dial 4-1-1 anymore?

Talking In Tongues

Is it just me or is anyone else disturbed by the number of people who now wander around talking to themselves?  Its one thing to talk loudly on your cell phone but when there is no cell phone visible and your hands are flailing about and you are shouting out into space do you ever consider the impression that you are leaving on the people around you? 

There is a secretary here (pardon me, "Adminstrative Coordinator")  that is constantly on the phone and with the invention of the bluetooth headset she now proceeds to take her loud and annoying "personal" conversations  on the road... from her desk... to the bathroom... to the coffee pot... to the mail room, etc.  You can hear her cackle all over the building.

I've even encountered some patrons yelling in the stacks in what appears to be schizophrenic fits or evangelical 'talking in tongues' episodes.   

And I Thought Butt Crack Was Bad

Jeremy Scott fashion show... I hope these designs never make it inside the library.

Mistaken Identities

Why do the powers-that-be around here always put the least qualified or least organized person in charge of a task or a project that requires an attention-to-detail?  Why?

There I go beating my head against that rock again...

Where's A Good Book When You Need One?

I've been searching Overdrive for the last half hour and I still can't find a decent biography to download. I think they'll let anyone publish a book these days whether they are interesting or not.

Gastric Distress

I hate it when you join your co-workers in ordering lunch and then the delivery person is late and you miss most of your lunch hour.  I'm starving....

I've Been Violated!

Some a$$hole stole the emblems off the front and back of my poor 7-year-old car while I was in Wally-World yesterday for a mere 15 minutes.  I'm a librarian for goodness sake.  It's not like I drive a vintage Cadillac or Mercedes yet some punk is probably out running around with my Scion emblem hanging from his neck on a gold chain. 

Kiss My Grits

Why does everything sound sweeter, nicer or funnier with a authentic southern accent?  While dining out the other day I was subjected to the typical toddler tirade at a local restaurant.  This blonde, southern-belle could not have been more than 4 or 5 years old and liked to share her opinion, wanted or not, on every topic under the sun at a level that everyone in the place could hear.  She didn't like what her mother ordered for her and made sure the rest of the the restaurant heard her repeated complaints about the cuisine and at that special pitch that only screaming toddlers seem to be able to reach all the while the stone-deaf mother ignored her insistent child's pleas and continued on with her adult "hushed" conversation.

Then the little girl looks at the mother's companion and inquires "Why did he call the cops on you?"

From the mouths of babes...

End of Summer Re-Runs

Well it's that time of year again... time to count the truant teens that have escaped into the library instead of going to school.  Why do they want to hang out here in the middle-of-the-day anyway?  Are they just not cool enough to think of something more exciting to do?  Why must they inflict their boredom on us?  Go and bug someone else for a change, please!

Is it Friday Yet?

Why is it when you know that you have a three-day weekend coming up the rest of the week just seems to drag on?  Tick...tock...tick...tock...  Why oh why?