This year’s running joke…… We put a bottle of unscented hand sanitizer on the circ desk.  Before we knew it – an unknown student adorned it with a note – “BORING scented.”  As soon as Kathy (my assistant) saw the note, she made a sticker for the bottle that said “Scratch and Sniff”.   Then we sat back and watched.   Amazing the number of students who came up and did exactly that.  Various reactions:

• puzzled looks
• shrugs
• “But …. it doesn’t smell’! (Well, says I, it’s UNSCENTED!)
• Sheepish looks when they realize they’ve fallen for a joke – followed by loud laughter
• “I can’t BELIEVE I actually fell for that.”
• “You guys are crazy.”

The other day I came in and discovered that the joke goes on.  Someone had attached a nicely lettered sign saying :

“Smell it – You know you want to!”

On a different playful note …..

Today’s morning announcement:

Drop off your questions for the advice column in the question box in the library – right next to Mr Potato Head.

I am not entirely sure if they are referring to Darth Tater who sits ON the desk…..

Or me who sits BEHIND the desk!

MAY THE FARCE BE WITH YOU!

And here is another educator having fun at Darth Tater’s expense.  Darth Tater Puns.

You may have seen a clip of this wedding on national news.  Here is the whole thing.  I can’t stop watching it.  SO much fun!!!

Thanks so much Jill & Kevin.  May your life be filled with the joy you shared with the world on your special day!

I showed them. As you can see, I have the most “classic” outfit in the bunch. What you can’t see is that the ancient volume of Shakespeare I am clutching has a sign on it:

Martha Washington was my BFF in Ye Olde Colonial High School back in 1749.

Our students had the era a little confused – but I am told there were kids asking “Was Mrs Henry REALLY in high school during the Civil War?”

Here’s the gang. A fun time was had by all!

I’ve been thinking about my own source for humor for a couple of days. I am not sure entirely – but I just find life hilariously funny. I think I got my sense of the absurd from the grandmother who raised me. She was an imposing Irish woman who faced many hardships in her life – not the least of which was the death of her daughter and son-in-law (my parents) and the subsequent inheritance of a 2-year old granddaughter to raise. Just when most folks are contemplating retirement, my grandparents were starting all over again with potty-training, first days of school, girl scouts, teenage trauma and on and on. Bless them!

My grandmother’s letters were always a source of hilarity to my college roommates. How I wish I had saved them! She always signed the letters T.O.B. – The Old Bag. I remember one letter vividly. As if raising me was not enough – she also took in another granddaughter whose parents split up. Merrie was about 10 when I went to college. In her letter, Grandma wrote: “You won’t believe the latest. Merrie wants a bra. You may as well put a bra on a WORM!!” That image has always stayed with me.

My grandfather had his funny moments as well. While home from college one weekend, I lost an earring. My grandmother thought perhaps it had fallen inside my bra. Having rather the figure of a worm myself at the time, I joked that it had probably fallen straight through onto the ground. Both grandparents laughed. Then we went back to school where we joined up with my boyfriend (future husband). While out to dinner, they asked Bob if he liked his dorm room. To which Bob replied – “It’s great. My closet is so big – I have nothing in my drawers.” Silly us – neither of us noticed the humor potential of that particular statement. But the next thing you knew – my grandfather whispered something in my grandmother’s ear, rendering them both helpless with laughter. Being young, and evidently humor challenged at the moment, Bob and I had no idea why they were laughing and my grandmother would not tell me till later. Evidently, when Bob had commented on the contents (or lack thereof) of his drawers, Grandpa had whispered: “SHE’s got nothing in her bra. HE’s got nothing in his drawers. WHAT do they do for entertainment?”

One of their greatest gifts to me was a sense of humor. All my file cabinets – real and virtual – have folders titled “Humor & Inspiration”. Humor is truly the gift of a life worth living. I am grateful to those 2 special people for so many things – and I miss their laughter and love every day.

Everyone needs something.

There is a glitch to even the simplest tasks.

Why on earth do I work so hard in June – when September is chaos – no matter what?

I just can’t wait till the end of next week, when the library schedule will be ready, the magazines will be checked in and I have time to sort all my jobs.  I used to have 2 piles marked with my “urgent”, and “ignore” paperweights.    I am going for color coded folders this year:

Red folder: Urgent (sell by date about to expire)

Yellow folder: Important – no due date – but needs to be done to make the library a better place

Green folder: I’ll get to it when hell freezes over, or just before I retire.  Whichever comes first.

Well – that’s my public whine for the year.  It will be better tomorrow

We went to Ithaca and hiked several gorge trails and visited an interactive science museum. Did a lot of swimming and read 2 books – “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow and “The Reserve” by Russell Banks. I need more thinking time about both of them…

The best part of family vacations is – family. I LOVE having adult children. It is so great to see that all those family vacations with the kids fighting and whining in the back seat have resulted in well-adjusted adults who value family time and are passing on the joys of family vacations to our granddaughter. She hardly whined at all – and since she is an only child, she had no one to fight with.

My best moment…. Laughing with my son until the tears rolled and my face hurt. He and I share the same rather skewed sense of humor. At the end of one of the gorge trails, we were sitting on a bench with a memorial plaque. The plaque contained the name of a husband and wife with a Polish last name, followed by the phrase “What a Country” and was signed “Love, Your Children”.

I said to Jason – “This is what I want instead of a headstone when I die – a nice bench like this with a beautiful view and a plaque.”

Jason’s reply? “Great idea Mom – we can inscribe it “Fart Here!”

I just lost it. I’m laughing as I type. Between screams of laughter, we decided to clean up the inscription a little. We settled upon a much more poetic version: “Sit ye here and fart awhile”. It has a certain ring to it – don’t you think?

Anyway – reluctantly we decided that we should probably find something altogether more solemn and respectable. I know – boring. But Jason has promised that he will put the bit about farting on the back of the bench as a little reward for anyone industrious enough to look beyond the surface.

So … if you see a little bench somewhere with a pretty, inspirational phrase – be sure to look a little further to see if there is a less polite message hiding out somewhere.

Thanks everybody!

After making a staff presentation on Blogs, RSS & Wikis the “Green & Gray Librarian” said:

I think the presentation was mostly me talking to the walls. I know a few members of the staff were interested, but I think the rest will simply dismiss it as useless information.

I just LOVE this response from Aaron.

Those librarians will care about technological trends and how they affect their jobs in a few years – when the first generation raised on WiFi and high speed internet and web-enabled toilet seats reaches college age. Since these kids have never been told that the web is anything other than the Final Authority On Everything, they will see absolutely no use for a library – mostly because the very same librarians who couldn’t be bothered to listen to you never took the time to explain to them why the library is necessary. Then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the librarians will all become redundant and lose their jobs.

Here is how I stack up according to a survey found via Alice In Infoland:

***You are 20% Evil***

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

I tried my best to answer all the survey questions honestly. Really. I dug around the old memory bank to remember all my evil actions. But – my memory is just not what it used to be. So – sue me!

My work-study student calls me “Evil Old Woman” as a term of endearment. Does that count? Here are some signs he made for me. I keep turning the good side out – but he keeps switching it to the evil side. I will miss that young man…..

GOOD MRS. HENRY

EVIL MRS. HENRY

So…. How Evil Are You? Take the test – if you dare.