8.30.2005
More Trying Questions
From The Conspiracy Theorist: "Who owns Oxford University?"
From a frequent Trivia Caller: "In Africa, there is a tribe of tall people called the Watusis. What are the short people called?"
Me: I believe you must be thinking of Pygmies.
She didn't believe me. I tried to explain that the designation of "pygmy" encompassed many different African tribes of short people and because of that original term, "pygmy" in the English language has come to be used generically of anything small. I don't think she ever believed or understood me, but when people don't want to do their own research, well, that's what they get.
Incidentally, this link supports my original explanation. Thank you very much. [For the record, I did read her a sampling of the names on that site, but I knew she would not recognize them, and they were not the answer to her question anyway. She was writing the daily trivia question for her "residence home" and I was pretty sure none of the elderly there would come up with Bambuti or Bagyeli.]
From the Whiney Butt Woman: Can I ask you a question? ...I'm sure you know the answer to this...I have this problem all the time when I try to go to a web page and I type it in up at the top, frequently I make a mistake...I know there is a way to correct the mistake without erasing everything I have typed...can you tell me how to do that...
[She talks VEEEEERY SLOOOOOWLY.]
I did not feel capable of verbally explaining the process of backspacing; well, I tried, but she was not too familiar with the keyboard, so I took her back to the Ref Desk to proceed with my lesson. I had to cover the basics, such as "The blinking line is the cursor. The spot where the line is, is exactly where your letters will appear when you type them." She seems to think the library staff are her free tutors in the skill of computing. Except that she never remembers what we tell her. Crap.
From a frequent Trivia Caller: "In Africa, there is a tribe of tall people called the Watusis. What are the short people called?"
Me: I believe you must be thinking of Pygmies.
She didn't believe me. I tried to explain that the designation of "pygmy" encompassed many different African tribes of short people and because of that original term, "pygmy" in the English language has come to be used generically of anything small. I don't think she ever believed or understood me, but when people don't want to do their own research, well, that's what they get.
Incidentally, this link supports my original explanation. Thank you very much. [For the record, I did read her a sampling of the names on that site, but I knew she would not recognize them, and they were not the answer to her question anyway. She was writing the daily trivia question for her "residence home" and I was pretty sure none of the elderly there would come up with Bambuti or Bagyeli.]
From the Whiney Butt Woman: Can I ask you a question? ...I'm sure you know the answer to this...I have this problem all the time when I try to go to a web page and I type it in up at the top, frequently I make a mistake...I know there is a way to correct the mistake without erasing everything I have typed...can you tell me how to do that...
[She talks VEEEEERY SLOOOOOWLY.]
I did not feel capable of verbally explaining the process of backspacing; well, I tried, but she was not too familiar with the keyboard, so I took her back to the Ref Desk to proceed with my lesson. I had to cover the basics, such as "The blinking line is the cursor. The spot where the line is, is exactly where your letters will appear when you type them." She seems to think the library staff are her free tutors in the skill of computing. Except that she never remembers what we tell her. Crap.
