Comparatively slow Saturday at Reference, but, boy, when it got squirrelly, it got REALLY squirrelly.
First, an update to the ongoing counts:
Nose Picking: +2, total of 5.
Boarding Passes: +1, total of 6.
Toilet Clanks: +4, total of 11.
Toilet Flushes: +7, for a total of 17.
The Rare Simultaneous Clank/Flush Combo: 1!
Another entry into the "Photocopy of Mysterious Origins" file. At the Circulation desk, there was a photo copy from the local city directory for 1954. Someone had copied the page showing a picture of the former library building. The picture was just sitting there on the counter, on the public side of a computer monitor. The staff had no idea it was there, but customers saw it when checking out books. None of my colleagues know who put it there.
I now know what it sounds like to have a dozen tubas practicing Christmas carols in a confined space. And so does anyone else who was in the library yesterday. They were practicing for the strolling brass band that plays in the holiday parade. VERY LOUD, very pretty, sort of odd, and I really missed it when they all trooped out the door for the parade.
While helping a young man find resources for his paper about the legislative process of creating immigration laws, a guy I'd seen around the library a lot lately invited himself into the conversation. He'd heard my patron's accent, and was curious. Turns out the guy had been a Peace Corps volunteer in a neighboring country around the time my patron had migrated here. My patron was pretty focused on getting the resources for his paper (it's due Monday), and I could see he was sort of uncomfortable with the Peace Corps guy approaching him like that. And then it got weirder. The Peace Corps guy said, "You want a sandwich? I have an extra!" and offered it to my patron. Never mind all the rules about not eating in the library (I had to bust a couple later in the day--they were eating AND rolling their own cigarettes in a quiet little nook). Never mind that my patron was pretty prosperous looking (new coat, leather satchel with a shiny laptop visible in it, gold necklace and watch). Just a random offer of a sandwich. I wonder what kind it was.
One of my regular ladies needed a lot of extra assistance at the public internet computer. She likes to find websites, copy the page into a word processing program, and then save the document to her thumb drive...because the kinds of websites she's looking for are often gone when she goes to look for them again. She's very concerned with mind control, and believes that she is being followed by people monitoring her every action. When the gigantic amount of data she's copying from a website doesn't immediately populate the new document she's creating, she's 100% convinced that the Pentagon is on the other end of the computer "changing things" for her. Or maybe it's the CIA.
And then there was my Stumper of the Day.
First off, know that the phone at the Reference Desk has two volume settings: Whisper and SHOUT. There are volume buttons on the phone, but I think the buttons are there to taunt the reference librarians, because no matter how many times you jab at the button the volume doesn't change. I always forget about the SHOUT setting, and I always end up wincing when a shouter calls and the phone is on SHOUT. My stumper was a shouter. And the phone was on SHOUT.
"Are you familiar with the picture of a kid eating a hamburger--well, it might have been a cheeseburger--and in the background is a TV showing Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald? Are you old enough to remember that? Came out in '64 or '65. It was in Esquire magazine. And it was a big old console television, walnut or something. And they had an article in it about 4 new faces, and I think one of them was Brooke Shields." No, I'm not old enough to remember that, sorry.
Recognizing that this was a search that could take some time, I asked for the caller's name and phone number so I could call back with results. The caller offered to call me back. I said that I was going to be going for my lunch in an hour, then I had other responsibilities in the afternoon. "Okay, I'll call back in an hour."
And it took me nearly the whole hour to find the picture. First off, there are tons of sites hosting the picture of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. TONS of them. But none of them show a kid eating a burger, cheese or otherwise. And none of them show an Esquire magazine cover. I searched Esquire's website, but they don't have much available as far as archives go--or at least not without a subscription.
So, I dropped the whole Esquire and magazine aspects of the search. Highly possible the caller had the wrong magazine, so let's not limit the search with "esquire OR magazine." Now, should I search for 'cheeseburger', 'hamburger', 'burger', or just plain old 'sandwich'? How about eating? Boy, girl, kid or child? Add "television OR TV"? "Lee Harvey Oswald" and "Jack Ruby"--but do I need 'shooting' or 'killing' or 'assassinating'? A colleague suggested searching with the phrase "famous picture," but that really skewed the results, so I dropped it quickly. And I totally ignored the Brooke Shields bit, as that didn't seem to be what the caller was seeking, and would only muddy the waters.
Like I said, it took me nearly an hour to find it, but I eventually did. Using Google's Image Search, I used the following search:
child burger TV background "Lee Harvey Oswald" OR "Jack Ruby"
The image was about 18th in the results, though I've just searched again, and it's up to 9th.
And here it is:
The clincher? I told my colleague who was relieving to expect a call back about the image, and presented her with the information I'd learned: May 1967 cover of Esquire (price: 75 cents), photo-collage by George Lois.
So, of course, the person didn't call back.
