Whale of a Tale

Hi everyone, welcome back! Hope you're ready for more library hi-jinks. I've got a couple posts in the works but this one just couldn't wait. This entry will have you floundering on the floor laughing. Please don't kill me for that pun.

As you have probably surmised, this story has something to do with fish (No really?). Currently we have a display featuring the a local book Julianna and the Medicine Fish which I'll talk about more in next month's local book feature. In this display we've included all sorts of fishing gear, mounted fish, and various other wetland wildlife.

A patron came up the other day and asked if we could make a change to the display. I asked him what he thought needed changing and he explained that some of the bigger lures we had used in the display have double barbs on them. Apparently these type of lures are illegal in Manitoba and this patron didn't want us to give young fishing enthusiasts the wrong idea and suggested that we either bend or break the barbs off the hooks. These were lent to us by a local sporting goods store that delivers all across Canada so these lures were definitely not put there with the intent of leading little anglers into illegal territory.

I personally felt that his request wasn't unreasonable but because the they were lent items I feel like I should make the call to bend/break the potentially expensive items. Lucky for me my coworker who was instrumental in putting the display together was with me and asked the patron to show her the lures in question. While they were looking at the display some form of this conversation occurred.

Coworker: Is it these lures?

Patron: Yes, the large ones with the double barbs.

Coworker: Ah, I see what you mean, however because they're on loan I can't bend them or snip off the barbs. Perhaps I could put a small sign saying that these barbs are illegal in Manitoba?

Patron: Yeah, it was just kinda hurtful because I was a whale in a previous life. So I know how much those things can hurt.

Coworker: Oh, Ok, well I'm sorry?

Must have been a large fishing lure, or maybe he was a tiny whale?

See how quickly a perfectly reasonable request can turn into a revelation about reincarnation? Just one of the many services offered by the library.

You may have noticed that the blog looks a bit nicer; I'm messing around the template so let me know what you think and if you'd like to see any functional changes. I nearly forgot! A friend of mine started a blog the other day check it out HERE!