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Re: Friday Funnies - strange researchers revisted.



I had one like this once, Thomas.  After about our fifth go-round, I
politely suggested that this might be the wrong place for him to be doing
his research (You know, "Don't let the doorknob bang your butt on the way
out.").  He calmed down and at least tried to obey the rules.

Some folks just don't get it while others simply refuse to.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: hcea-tberry [mailto:tberry@HCEA.NET]
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 5:29 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Friday Funnies - strange researchers revisted.


Gentleman calls wanting to do research into a certain aspect of machine
design and safety. Simple enough. He arrives for his research appointment.
After reading and signing my "House Rules" prohibiting pens, he frowns when
I say don't use the huge pen he signed the rules with. I get him a pencil
and he starts to work.

Soon he's complaining that my retrieving things from his extensive list is
taking too long, and he hands me the first folder of records I pulled for
him, now in utter disarray. He says he wants to look directly in the files
himself. The files are in my office, where there's hardly room for one
person, let alone two. No problem, he says. I tell him in no uncertain terms
to be careful with the records. No problem, he says, then starts licking his
thumb to turn each page he reads. He desists after more strong words. I go
into the other room for a moment, and return to see him refiling what he
removed from a drawer. He puts it where it's supposed to go, but with pages
cocked every which way and contents out of order. Just for good measure,
other events commence in the other room, and he now has no place to work
except in the office. We spend much of the next several hours climbing
around each other, like occupants of the Marx Brothers' stateroom in (I
think) A Night at the Opera.

Then I notice that he's used the back of a report on my work table for
scratch paper. I photocopy his notes and hand the copy to him, and he panics
because that means he's misplaced his other notes. He comes into the office
and proceeds to ransack my work table looking for his notes, throwing my
papers into disarray. I finally find his notes in a foot-high stack of
records he wants copied.

We start discussing the cost of copies. He wants everything done in color,
and nearly faints when I tell him the cost (I have to make them at Kinko's).
He asks if he can take the whole stack back to California with him and have
his company's copy clerk run the copies for him. No, I say (which I would
have said at the outset of all this, had I known what I was getting into!).
He goes back through the pile of records, licking his thumb until I glare at
him, and decides he only wants about a fourth of what he pulled copied. Then
he wants paper clips to stick on all the pages he wants copied. No! Post-it
notes? No!! Write - in pencil! - a list of the documents and pages. This he
does, and he leaves happy that he found so much useful material for his
project.

This whole fiasco took almost the entire day. Don't laugh too hard - it
could happen to you!

Best wishes, and pass the Rolaids,

Thomas Berry, Archivist/Web Editor
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>