[Publib] 50 things, & back to restaurants

[Sanderson, James W.]

Never create a rule policy or procedure that does not allow for occasional necessary variations as dictated by circumstances ( of course in the spirit of this rule it is necessary to add "except as required by law).

James W. Sanderson
Supervising Librarian
West Avenue Library
Newport News Public Library
2907 West Avenue
Newport News, Virginia. 23607
(757) 247-8505
(757) 247-2344
www.nngov.com/library
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of John Richmond
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:29 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] 50 things, & back to restaurants

Now that I seem to be among the living....

A word for patrons/customers/whatevers: Never assume that the person
working at any given desk in a library is a woman.  Although, even as
a vile male, I *always* smile and am courteous to the people who say,
"Excuse me, ma'am," when approaching me at the reference desk.  Which
I don't do as much as I used to because Administration seems to be
eating up more and more of my time.  But I must admit that there's a
teeny-tiny part of me that inwardly takes a certain, small (I am
trying to convince everyone that I'm not really all THAT vile by
virtue--in fact, I try to be virtuous, too, which, at its root, sports
the Latin, "vir," meaning "man," and I'm not sure how I got onto all
this--of being a male, hence the emphasis on diminishing my reactions
to things) delight in observing people's discomfort after they realize
that they have addressed me as "ma'am."

How's *that* for a badly-written paragraph, full of parenthetical thoughts?

And my hair isn't as long and curly as it used to be.  But the other
day in B&N, I was in the cafe, waiting behind a man who was trying to
figure out what to buy.  Said he to the B&N employee, "I'll get out of
the way so you can help the *lady*"--that was Yr. Humble
Servt.--"here."  Someone must be hatching a plot....

Back to restaurants: I thought #7 was interesting, about not telling
people one's name.  Because over the years, I think Americans in
various walks of life have been trained to act friendly, even if
they're not.  As if all salespersons, clerks, library staff, wait
staff at restaurants, et al., are supposed to be *chummy*.  On a
first-name basis.  The one time I went to England, I was delighted to
be well-served in restaurants, without all the chit-chat that I get
almost everywhere in the U.S.  "Have a nice day."  In *restaurants*,
my favorite non-favorite at the moment is, "How's everything tastin'
here?"  A part of me wants to say, "Oh, my God, this tastes as if rat
poison had been added to the recipe!  This tastes worse than
*anything* I've ever eaten, anywhere!!  I think I'm gonna puke!!"
However, being a vir-tuous person, I smile and, speaking through my
food--because *they* always ask questions when my mouth is full--utter
something incomprehensible, and go on eating, while Mr. or Ms.
Perky--yes, even some men can be trained to be perky--flies off to the
kitchen, having asked what he or she was *trained* to ask, like some
automaton.

I was going to write something truly serious about what we should do
in libraries, but I've decided there's no hope for it, or me, now, so
this is it.

John Richmond, B.A., M.S., M.Div., M.A.L.E.
Director, Alpha (?male?) Park Public Library
Bartonville, IL


_______________________________________________
Publib mailing list
Publib at webjunction.org
https://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib