Okay, I lied about not using old stuff anymore.

Here is part of a letter I wrote to Will Manley in 1995 and part of his column that used my letter:

I'm a reference librarian, and I know I should be tolerant, but I find my patience evaporating as days go by. Some people are too, too stupid. Just this morning a guy called for a value on a used Chevy half-ton pickup truck. What model, I asked. Doesn't know. Engine? Not sure. Long bed? Don't know. Gun rack, hound dog, Confederate flag in back? Yep, he knows that. So I guess and tell him what a specific model costs; if the truck he wants is that model then he's in luck.
What the hell else am I supposed to do???

I'm constantly being pissed off by people who think that everything is on computer. Don't you have the Internet? Don't you have the CD-ROM? Can't you just type some keys and give me every damn thing I want??!! DON'T YOU HAVE ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY THAT I REFUSE TO PAY FOR BY NOT VOTING TO PAY MORE IN TAXES TO SUPPORT IT??? ISN'T MY LOUSY $15 A YEAR ENOUGH TO GET ME WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT IT???

That's what pisses me off. A demanding public which demands things it can't possibly get because it doesn't have the capacity to understand that it's not free. Technology takes money and knowledge requires effort, dammit.

Yeah, what is it the kids say? "Angry, much?"

And here is what appeared in his column:

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the hundreds of readers who answered the survey from my July/ August column (p. 736) on the vexations of reference librarianship.

• A man called the reference desk of a southern public library and wanted to know the blue-book value of a Chevy pickup truck. "What model?" asked the librarian. The patron didn't know. "What size engine?" The patron didn't know. "Long-bed or short-bed?" The patron didn't know. "Well," said the librarian in exasperation, "what can you tell me about it?" "Oh," said the caller, "it has a gun rack, a hound dog, and a sticker of the Confederate flag on the back window."

So there you have it, the earliest evidence I can find that I was destined to become the.effing.librarian.

And to those of you who've purchased t-shirts and coffee mugs, wear them and sip from them with pride. (And GB, really, one shirt??!! I mean the exchange rate for $ to £ makes the shirt practically free!) Tell your friends. Take a picture of you wearing the shirt or holding the mug, send it to me and I'll post it!!! I'm desperate for attention, and if I need to live vicariously through a t-shirt to have some, then I'll do it. Send me pictures!