We are Anonymous. Resistance is Futile.

[Hon'ya-chan]

So I had this lady come in today, and she's looking for this book. Tells me the title. Cool beans, one result shows up.

Author: Anonymous

Just as I was about to tell her what I found, she asks "Do you have anymore books by that author?" I tell her that the author is Anonymous. While i'm telling her this, I switch over to (exact methods and specifications censored to protect my job due to possible spoilers to my actual employers) to make sure I got it right, and sure enough, the listing spits out the author as Anonymous. No co-authors, nothing. Great.

So I tell her that the author is Anonymous. She asks why I can't find other books on the author. I ask what was the subject of the book. She says "History". Matches my finds. I tell her, "I seriously doubt Go Ask Alice is in the same vein as your book query. And I can think of three books that closely match the search off the top of my head, but they have completely different "revealed" authors (The Federalist Papers, Primary Colors, and Imperial Hubris. She's adament that she wants all the books published by Anonymous.

So I pretty much give into her demands. I do a quick search, and pull out all the books that list an author with Anonymous off the floor. I pull out Go Ask Alice, The Federalist Papers, Imperial Hubris, a couple Fashion Books, The Story of O, and Beowulf. I then present them to her.

"Here you go. Take your pick." She stood miffed and mad.

[Rubystars]

I don't think she knew what anonymous meant. A lot of people really don't seem to know what any word over four letters means.

It's like one time I was trying to show a new cashier how to sort the blue bag for the registers into clips. I said "Make one clip of check slips, one clip of coupons, one clip of WIC vouchers, and one clip of miscellaneous documents." The cashier asked me "What does miscellaneous mean?" I wanted to hit her... I really wanted to hit her, but I didn't. I just gave her examples of other things we get.

[draggar]

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

[greensinestro]

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

I believe it very much. Words like "miscellaneous" and "anonymous" should be words we all know, being they seem to be used often. In fact, when I was a kid, most of my classes required a folder kept, and a few wanted those folders to have sections. So, I would make the sections with file folders, and these folders had tabs on them. One of the tabs was marked "miscellaneous", and it even had been a vocabulary word in Language Arts. I from that day on knew what that word meant, and teachers often had that section of your folder for things like notes and classroom sheets handed out.

As for anonymous, I have known way back to at least 7 years old what that word means. I had heard it, remember asking my mom to tell me what it meant, and from then on knew what it meant.

Try using more complicated words, such as "ambidextrous" or "productivity".

By the way, the only book that comes to my mind by "Anonymous" is "Primary Colors".

[siead_lietrathua]

we are anonymous, we are many, we are legion. and we never forgive.

sorry, joke from another site. but in all seriousness, how is that that someone can grow up without knowing that word, expecially since the news seems to spout out the term every other day!

[Primer]

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

I think you're being optimistic...oh wait, that word is too big.

[Becks]

She's adament that she wants all the books published by Anonymous.

So I pretty much give into her demands. I do a quick search, and pull out all the books that list an author with Anonymous off the floor. I pull out Go Ask Alice, The Federalist Papers, Imperial Hubris, a couple Fashion Books, The Story of O, and Beowulf. I then present them to her.

"Here you go. Take your pick." She stood miffed and mad.

Another case of a customer getting what they ask for, not what they want.

Good for you, btw. I would've done the same.

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

Is that the AVERAGE? I mean, people tell me I'm smart. I'm offended that anyone would think that I'm only at a sixth grade level.

[greensinestro]

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

Populace? What does that mean? It's too short of word to mean anything, right?

[Gawdzillers]

we are anonymous, we are many, we are legion. and we never forgive.

sorry, joke from another site. but in all seriousness, how is that that someone can grow up without knowing that word, expecially since the news seems to spout out the term every other day!

MOOT MAH BOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Try getting them to spell a word over 4 letters.

[Noelegy]

Is that the AVERAGE? I mean, people tell me I'm smart. I'm offended that anyone would think that I'm only at a sixth grade level.

Ummm...a former friend of mine (previously referred to as Psycho #2) was always asking me what words meant. I had sort of a complex dating back to grade school regarding people who ridiculed me for using big words and "acting like I was smarter than everyone." Upon graduating high school, I told myself that I would never dumb myself down for anyone again; if they didn't understand my vocabulary, the failing was theirs and not mine.

Still, when this friend would ask me what words meant, I reminded myself that not everyone is as much of a reader as I am, and I would simply tell her what it meant without comment. The day came that we went to visit my newborn nephew in the hospital, and I was looking for a spot in the parking garage. I thought I saw one, and then I saw the sign and said, "Oops, I guess I'm not clergy," and I moved my car out of the spot.

"What's 'clergy'?" sez she. And I couldn't help myself. I'd never allowed myself a reaction to her lack of vocabulary before, but this time it was shocked out of me. "You really don't know what 'clergy' means?" I said, and then I proceeded to define the word.

She told me that she really didn't appreciate me "making fun" of her for not knowing a word, and then she went on to tell me that it wasn't HER fault she didn't have a good education. She had ADHD, her parents were divorced when she was twelve, and she had lousy teachers. At that point, I couldn't help it, and I told her that I'd had a lousy English teacher my last two years of high school, and that hadn't stopped me from reading outside of the curriculum, educating myself, and hey, here's a concept: looking up words I didn't know. No, I wasn't that sarcastic in my response, but honestly!

[BookstoreEscapee]

I that you gave her the Story of O...I :heart: you!

[Hon'ya-chan]

I that you gave her the Story of O...I :heart: you!

I'm surrpised we even had it.

[justZu]

Try using more complicated words, such as "ambidextrous" or "productivity".

Hey, I'm ambidextrous(really, I am). However, I suffer from a profound lack of productivity due to my hours spent perusing CS.

[AFpheonix]

People never believe me when I say this country keeps its populace educated to a sixth grade level...

The populace has PLENTY of resources available to educate themselves, especially in this day and age. That's hardly the result of "the man" keeping them down, it's more of a result of people just being frickin' lazy.

laissez faire attitudes are ok about some things, but not knowing a pretty common word that's probably on quite a few 3rd graders' vocab lists? Shameful.