Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Me?

I have written on occasion about coincidence here at the library. One of my points has been to stress how even a lot of quite striking coincidences fall within a statistically normal range. Talking about a famous person with a co-worker, for instance, and then shortly after coming across some book or DVD or something that prominently features that person feels a little funny, but famous people are famous because, well, they're famous. They're ubiquitous. In a place like a library, packed to the gills with cultural references, one is unlikely to go twenty feet without smacking into a hundred mentions, pictures and odes to famous people, from Dr. Seuss to Madame Curie to Rimbaud to Phranc the lesbian folksinger. It can come at you like great waves.

So I try to keep the coincidence stories to a minimum.

I know this sounds like I am going to tell you a coincidence story anyway. And I am. But it's not because it's such an amazing coincidence. It's because I was unnerved. I am writing about this to you because I secretly believe it will dispel the curse of the coincidence I encountered.

It will be brief.

Our requests at this library are filed under a three letter code derived from the first two letters of a patron's last name and the first letter of their first. So, requested items are filed under a three letter code. When one works on the phones one processes materials on hold for people to generate slips that get placed in the item. I think that's enough of an explanation. Anyway, that's what I was doing.  I ran a DVD over our reader pad and generated a slip with the initials GOD. 

The DVD belonging to that slip is a scary looking horror movie called You're Next.

GOD, and then, You're Next.

I am not keen on the message. But if you're seeing this post, I am probably okay.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, no. The code for my name would be FUK.

    Every time I have to spell my last name for someone (and that's a lot, since it's an unusual name with an unintuitive spelling) I have to say something like this:

    F-U (sorry) H-R
    etc. Ugh. It's certainly not very lady like. But I do get a few laughs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is funny, and gracefully handled, ladylike or not.

      The worst version of our letter code I can think of is from when, many years ago, we filed requests behind the desk by the first 4 letters of the last name and the first letter of first name. As I try to run a PG blog, and because I am slightly shy here, I don't think I can bring myself to name this shocker directly, but I will say this much: there was a woman whose last name started P-e-n-i, and whose first name started just as you might think.

      Delete
  2. OMG!, you must take this seriously and not presume morbidity. Maybe you've been chosen 2 B the next prophet?! Maybe you've been a prophet this whole time but your endorsement was lost in the angelic bureaucracy?! OMG

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I genuinely appreciate your take on this. That grander interpretation did pass through my head a bit later, but my initial feeling of "Uh-oh!" was so strong I found it hard not to take the doom meaning from the event. Although, now that I haven't died perhaps I can take your advice. My only caution there would be a persistent feeling that I should probably try and keep my surging megalomania, which strains on its leash like a rabid dog, in check.

      Although perhaps that feeling is all that holds me back. Hmmm?

      Delete
  3. Food 4 thought. ^_^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which is food for thought? Is the "Food 4 thought" food for thought?

      Delete

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