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.