Libraries, the anti-drug
Sooo...a walk through the public library can be an experience, not necessarily a spiritual one, but a guaranteed "special" experience every time. That's because anyone can go to the public library, including, and especially the "crazies".
Take example A. I went to the Salt Lake Public Library on Saturday to check out a great book on genetics and evolution for my class book report, "The Seven Daughters of Eve". While I was busy looking around the shelves and walking across sitting areas to figure out the placement of the dewey decimal system I heard a loud "Angie, Angie". That's not my name so I ignored it. It got louder, and kinda closer. Heavy breathing and fast footsteps followed up behind me. I swung around to see a man badly scarred, with a shaved head and a wild-eyed gaze saying "Angie, you are Angie".
"Nope"...
"Angie, that's...you look like Angie...(he gets softer) so, what's your name?".
Right, I've met mister scary-what's-his-angle a time or two before in my life. They usually hang out in front of Crossroads mall and beg for change, or can be seen getting arrested in front of the pawn shop.
"I'm not Angie".
"Oh, so what's your name?"
Uh-huh, I'm just going to tell you what my name is.
(I repeat) "I'm not Angie".
"Oh, so do you know a Steve or Karl?"
"I'm sure everyone does" I reply.
"You do? Oh, they say they know you, they're just right outside"....Hmmm.
"No, no, I don't know a Steve or Karl"...
"They're right over there" (he points in some ambiguous direction).
I give him a look that says "I'm not going with you anywhere, thanks". He then, again, asks for my name. I tell him I don't have one, turn around and continue my search. He didn't follow.
There was also the time a large, balding librarian wearing a tie-dye rainbow shirt and sweatpants (again at the Salt Lake City Library) approached me and told me I look like I might have a good voice and that I should join his band. Uh-huh. I told him I was moving to DC. Which was the truth, I was about to move there.
And it would be a shame if I didn't mention the time I saw the crazy man that dressed like Jesus and walked around downtown shaming people into giving him money. I saw him and a woman dressed as Mary walking around the Library (again, the one in Salt Lake). I remember thinking at the time how nice that was that they'd found each other and dressed the same. Little did I know they'd turn out to be Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, the couple who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
Take example A. I went to the Salt Lake Public Library on Saturday to check out a great book on genetics and evolution for my class book report, "The Seven Daughters of Eve". While I was busy looking around the shelves and walking across sitting areas to figure out the placement of the dewey decimal system I heard a loud "Angie, Angie". That's not my name so I ignored it. It got louder, and kinda closer. Heavy breathing and fast footsteps followed up behind me. I swung around to see a man badly scarred, with a shaved head and a wild-eyed gaze saying "Angie, you are Angie".
"Nope"...
"Angie, that's...you look like Angie...(he gets softer) so, what's your name?".
Right, I've met mister scary-what's-his-angle a time or two before in my life. They usually hang out in front of Crossroads mall and beg for change, or can be seen getting arrested in front of the pawn shop.
"I'm not Angie".
"Oh, so what's your name?"
Uh-huh, I'm just going to tell you what my name is.
(I repeat) "I'm not Angie".
"Oh, so do you know a Steve or Karl?"
"I'm sure everyone does" I reply.
"You do? Oh, they say they know you, they're just right outside"....Hmmm.
"No, no, I don't know a Steve or Karl"...
"They're right over there" (he points in some ambiguous direction).
I give him a look that says "I'm not going with you anywhere, thanks". He then, again, asks for my name. I tell him I don't have one, turn around and continue my search. He didn't follow.
There was also the time a large, balding librarian wearing a tie-dye rainbow shirt and sweatpants (again at the Salt Lake City Library) approached me and told me I look like I might have a good voice and that I should join his band. Uh-huh. I told him I was moving to DC. Which was the truth, I was about to move there.
And it would be a shame if I didn't mention the time I saw the crazy man that dressed like Jesus and walked around downtown shaming people into giving him money. I saw him and a woman dressed as Mary walking around the Library (again, the one in Salt Lake). I remember thinking at the time how nice that was that they'd found each other and dressed the same. Little did I know they'd turn out to be Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, the couple who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
Comments
I had only one wacky experience happen to me while I was working at the reference desk at BYU. A man came up to me and told me he was a high priest leader in his ward. He then preceeded to show me his temple recommend and asked if the Library of Congress had the endowment on the Internet. He wanted a copy of it. I made some half hearted searches and couldn't find it. I also was unendowed at the time and was getting really bad feelings about the situtaion. I finally told him to stop by the next day and talk to my boss. He came early the next morning and my boss somehow placated him and I never saw him again. Usually at BYU, our problem was people looking at porn using the library computers.
So we are not going to the library to get dates this weekend huh? darn. jk.
meanwhile this has nothing to do with anything but my students just wrote the most terrible literary analysis papers. ack. won't catch most of them dead in a library.