en fuego

which means "on fire" for those not in the know...



I have been encouraged by several people to post this story here. I have only told 2 people because it still makes me so AnGrY when I think about it...



Last week a woman approached me at the desk.



[PATRON] - I have a question.



[ME] - Yes, ma'am. (BTW, this is one of my pet peeves. I am at the question answering desk. I know you have a question when you get there. That's what I do for a living, genius)



[PATRON] - You know when you look something up, like in Pubm3d or something, and it says "returning results 1 through about (she stressed this word) 100? What does that mean?



[ME] - *blink, blink* I'm not sure that I know.



[PATRON] - Is there anyone else here who would?



[ME] - No, but I can take a stab at it. You know sometimes when you look things up on Google...



[PATRON INTERRUPTS]



[PATRON] - That's not what I'm talking about. (she sighs) This is really a librarian (again, she emphasizes) question...



[Now, I'm not normally a really excitable person but I feel like she's just insulted me tremendously because it says librarian RIGHT ON MY NAMETAG. I am paying off about $12,000 dollars in student loan debt, not to mention additional credit card debt for all the other stuff that $12,000 failed to cover, because I AM a f*&^ing librarian!]

[ME] - I am a librarian. (now I stress the word)

[PATRON] - Well, you know what I mean! (no, I really don't) I need someone who specializes (I'm sure I don't need to tell you what the italics mean) in research questions!

[ME] - (I tap my name tag, which says, in block letters, REFERENCE LIBRARIAN) Like a reference librarian?

[She looks at me, I look at her. Silence reins. Finally I say...]

[ME] - I believe that search engines usually base their result page rankings on some kind of mathematical algorithim. If your search in Google is too specific, it will sometimes ask if you would like to perform the same search without those...

[PATRON INTERRUPTS] - Never mind! [and she stomps off]

If I could think someone into a maimed condition, the fire department would have carted her off on a stretcher. How rude!