The Eye Test

Today was weird. Which, of course, is normal when you're the apprentice to Walter J. Phillips, the great librarian.

Today Mr. Phillips sat me in a comfortable chair in a dark room and showed me slides of birds. He would show three birds in succession, a, b, and c, then a and b side by side, followed by a and c, then b and c. Then he would ask me which pair seemed to resemble each other the most. If I seemed uncertain (which was more often the case than not), he would run through them again, saying, "A and B... A and C... B and C. OK, one more time..." I felt like I was at the optometrist.

By the way, if you're wondering what any of this has to do with librarianship... you're in good company. Mr. Phillips' pedagogical methods get stranger and stranger every day.

"All right, here we have Corvus corax... followed by C. brachyrhynchos... and lastly C. frugilegus. Now here is C. corax with C. brachyrhynchos... next is C. corax with C. frugilegus... and finally we have C. brachyrhynchos with C. frugilegus. Which pair is the best match? Here they are again..."

And so on, for about three or four hours.

Don't ask me. I just work here.