You will remember that in the last issue, this column featured this somewhat "frumpy" looking sketch of a librarian. And so, we break into the following conversation:

LIBRARIAN: "Would you just look at this!!!!Frump city!!!!!You can't even trust your own Editor!!!!How cold she buy into that ancient image of the librarian as life's discard?"

SPOUSE:" I don't know about that. I love you , and you have a bun and glasses.."

LIBRARIAN: "Well, I have to have long sexy hair for you, but, at work, I'd be like that kid in _peanuts_if I didn't put it up....hair always caught in my notebook, the computer keys and my coffee cup! And my damn bifocals---brought on, I'm sure, by green screens and the disappearing typesize of _Books in Print_. But, do I look like a librarian? I mean, I dress for success, and I have faculty status!"

SPOUSE: "Remember Lake Placid? Anyone would know it was a library convention. there were little old ladies in sneakers, very sensible, young people in their sweaters knit by some Andrean Native Americans' co-op, very sensible and p.c., the urbanites looking pressed and pressed for time...but you all looked like librarians: earnest, helpful, educated, considering the problems of the world, even enthusiastic. Really! You go to an ASHRAE or AMA conference, and certainly don't see people looking _enthusiastic_! Powerful, rich, intelligent, sophisticated, maybe, but never enthusiastic! Isn't that a little too vulnerable? You don't see them looking pleasant, they look like techies and engineers. You really need to have an image. What kinds of cows give milk for Ben & Jerry's ice cream? What kinds of dogs live in firehouses?"

LIBRARIAN:" Who was it? Mark Twain? Erik Erickson? Who said you're responsible for your face after forty? I don't mind if my face looks helpful, but I think I'll cut my hair after all."

SPOUSE:" Well, then, you'll look like the margarine lady on the TV ads....."

[Reprinted with permission from the _ASLS Newsletter_, p.4 ]