July 19, 2005

Puts a hole in that theory

The life of a reference librarian is never dull.

Today I was regaled by one patron about the practice of above-ground burial in New Orleans (which I knew about) and drilling holes in the coffins to keep them from floating (which I didn't).

I learned that auburn actually refers to reddish-*brown* hair, rather than the gingery-red I'd associated it with (which means when I was saying "dark auburn," I was being redundantly redundant). (Even though the word comes from a word that originally meant blonde. And while we're on the subject of hair color, here, learn a bit more about brunettes, too.)

And I got told by a grateful patron that I was "*waaaay* better than any search engine!" (Which pretty much made my day. Which, now that I think about it, is rather sad.).

Posted by gris at July 19, 2005 08:20 PM