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Fun with Biographies and Nasty People

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  • Fun with Biographies and Nasty People

    Man comes in. I am at the Help desk with a fairly new employee, showing her how to do something.

    Man: Where are your biographies?

    This is a fairly common question. But we don't have a section dedicated solely to biographies; they are scattered throughout the store (Jim Morrison in Music, Hemingway in Fiction, Lincoln in History etc). Yes, it's kind of annoying but not hat hard to understand.

    New Co-Worker: Well sir, we don't really have a section, they're interspersed throughout the store. Who are you looking for?

    Man: YOU ARE NO HELP AT ALL! Maybe YOU can be more helpful. >turns to me<

    Me: Well sir, we don't really have a section, they're interspersed throughout the store. Who are you looking for? >said with a completely straight face<

    He turned red and I thought he would scream again but he just muttered the person's name and I showed him where it was. Seriously, though.




    Me: Hi
    EW:Educated Woman- the caps indicate she was huffing and talking in a very snotty tone

    EW: Where are your biographies?
    Me: Well ma'am we don't have a separate section, who are looking for?
    EW: YOU DON'T HAVE A BIOGRAPHY SECTION?
    Me: No. We don't. >in a decidedly colder tone<
    EW: I want >some name I don't recall<
    Me: Ah, and what does he do?
    EW: HE'S ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST PIANISTS.
    Me >grrrrr<: So he'll be in Music. Let's walk back and take a look.

    We go back to music and as we approach the shelves EW sees a copy of a recent biography of the composer Mussorgsky.

    EW: MUSSORGSKY WITH TWO S'S??
    Me: I've never seen it with fewer than two.
    EW: WELL IT SHOULDN'T BE.
    Me: Thank you for edifying me. Let me know if you need anything else.

    Usually I help a customer by looking through the books for them, but I couldn't be near her another minute.

    Note: I may be totally wrong and if anyone knows please tell me- Mussorgsky, being Russian, would originally have been written in Cyrillic...and changing Cyrillic to the Roman alphabet is done phonetically...so unless hi name is mu-Zorg-sky, wouldn't it be written with 2 s's??

    Edit: Oh dear, it seems I put this in the wrong forum- should go in Sucky Customers. Very sorry, would a mod please move it? Thank you!
    Last edited by AnaKhouri; 10-18-2007, 02:40 AM.
    https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

  • #2
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Mussorgsky

    --Dave

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    • #3
      EW: MUSSORGSKY WITH TWO S'S??
      ME: Well actually madam, if you look REALLY CAREFULLY, you will see that there are 3.

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      • #4
        Quoth Bagga View Post
        EW: MUSSORGSKY WITH TWO S'S??
        ME: Well actually madam, if you look REALLY CAREFULLY, you will see that there are 3.

        Man, I would of loved to see her face if you used that line instead of what you said.
        I'm tolerant of everyone and everything except for assholes. - Mongo Skruddgemire

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        • #5
          Yup. Being Russian, his name would have been written in Cyrillic. Thus, unless he had a preferred spelling in the Roman alphabet, anything that would give the correct sound should be acceptable. My company's name is originally a Hebrew word, and my boss spelled it in an unconventional way, because he wanted to stand out, and just because it was an uncommon spelling choice, that doesn't make it any less valid.

          ^-.-^
          Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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          • #6
            B&N does have a biography section, but that doesn't stop people from saying "Where are autobiographies?"

            Though, some people are shelved under the category they actually fall under (mostly in music and sports) and occasionally you'll find someone in 2 different places (ie, you can find one version of the Diary of Anne Frank in Judaica/Holocaust studies but the rest are in Biography. (Or something like that.)
            I don't go in for ancient wisdom
            I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
            It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

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            • #7
              Quoth BookstoreEscapee View Post
              B&N does have a biography section, but that doesn't stop people from saying "Where are autobiographies?"
              Gah!! I hate that. Every time that happens I ask the boss to install a trap door over an aligator pit.

              I usually respond with "We put them with the other biographies." only to receive a blank stare [dammit, there is no slack jawed blank stare smiley].

              Quoth BookstoreEscapee View Post
              Though, some people are shelved under the category they actually fall under (mostly in music and sports) and occasionally you'll find someone in 2 different places (ie, you can find one version of the Diary of Anne Frank in Judaica/Holocaust studies but the rest are in Biography. (Or something like that.)
              Organizationally, biographies suck. The best, but not verry good, solution we've been able to come up with is to put the entertainers in the biography section and the rest with the field in which they are famous.
              Proud to be a Walmart virgin.

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              • #8
                Quoth Mark Healey View Post
                Organizationally, biographies suck. The best, but not verry good, solution we've been able to come up with is to put the entertainers in the biography section and the rest with the field in which they are famous.
                Yeah, other than those few specific categories (and even some of those are found in regular Biography) they are just alphabetical by the last name of the subject of the book. I think for the most part, it is the whim of the publishers (or maybe the buyers) who send us the data for new books.
                I don't go in for ancient wisdom
                I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
                It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

                Comment

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