Tales From the Library

This one is from Becky in Illinois and is a great example of the smile and nod technique that I find myself using quite frequently:

I work in a moderately large public library in Illinois.  I have one regular patron, approximately 80 years old, who comes in to read the newspapers and magazines daily.  He has a strong interest in fusion, cyanobacteria, stem cell research... anything that he can find in an issue of Discover, Science News, National Geographic and Popular Science.  He usually spends about 30-40 minutes at my desk telling me all about the articles he's been reading.

Lately, he's been reading a lot of Ruth Montgomery books, particularly the ones about enlightened beings from outside of our solar system.  Out of a staff of roughly 23 people, he has chosen me to go with him and colonize a new planet.  We are just waiting for the earth's axis to shift 90 degrees.  When it does so, the enlightened beings are going to step in and help us out.

I can't rightly tell him that my eggs are creeping up there in age and that he might want to consider taking my much younger genealogist with him for this purpose.  Until I can relay these things, I just smile and nod.