Episode 583: What Happened? - podcast episode cover

Episode 583: What Happened?

Dec 08, 20231 hr 1 min
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[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHARLIE BENNETT

I tried to keep our discussion of plans and wishes more on the working and professional side of our lives. But let's take this moment to declare one more plan, a personal one, for 2023.

FRED RASCOE

I think this may fall into more resolution territory. But I think I want to--

CHARLIE BENNETT

But you don't do resolutions, Fred.

FRED RASCOE

I don't. But if it's going to sound like a resolution, I need to pick up the guitar more and play. I kind of let it collect dust.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I love it. Marlee?

MARLEE GIVENS

All right. It's the flip side of this. I resolve to cook one meatball recipe every month.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Can I give you a high five right here in the studio?

MARLEE GIVENS

You can.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Up here. Yes. I have the lamest one, sit ups and push ups every morning.

FRED RASCOE

It hurts. Don't do it.

CHARLIE BENNETT

It's happening.

MARLEE GIVENS

Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You are listening to WREK Atlanta. And this is Lost in the Stacks, the Research Library Rock'N'Roll radio show. I'm Charlie Bennett in the studio with Marlee Givens and Fred Rascoe. Each week on Lost in the Stacks, we pick a theme and then use it to create a mix of music and library talk. Whichever you're here for, we hope you dig it.

FRED RASCOE

Our show today is called What Happened? Or maybe we could say it, like,

MARLEE GIVENS

No. No.

[LAUGHTER]

MARLEE GIVENS

CHARLIE BENNETT: I can't get Marley to do The Mighty Wind quote.

FRED RASCOE

OK.

CHARLIE BENNETT

And if you, the listener, are keeping score, that's 10 episodes this year with titles that end in a question mark.

FRED RASCOE

At the beginning of 2023, we did a New Year's show that we called WTF in 2023? Meaning, of course, what's the future, what's the future in 2023.

MARLEE GIVENS

Uh huh. And during that episode, we talked about what had happened in 2022, what was happening at that moment in January 2023, and what we hoped would happen in the New Year.

CHARLIE BENNETT

What we hoped would happen in the form of predictions, aspirations, and promises to ourselves that were not, in any contractual way, resolutions.

MARLEE GIVENS

So we are checking in on those predictions, aspirations, and not resolutions, and we're asking what happened.

FRED RASCOE

And our songs today are about accomplishments, plans going awry, and surprises. Every January, we make plans, have resolutions, set goals. They are all promises to ourselves that we may not be able to keep.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Uh oh.

FRED RASCOE

So let's start with a song about breaking promises to ourselves. This is "Break A Promise" by Guv'ner, right here on Lost in the Stacks.

[GUV'NER, "BREAK A PROMISE"]

FRED RASCOE

GUV'NER: I told myself I'd never fall again. "Break A Promise," by Guv'ner, or I guess I should say Guv'ner. But they're American. I don't know. This is Lost in the Stacks. On our show today, let's almost break time,

CHARLIE BENNETT

Fred's at the end of the semester for sure.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

This is Lost in the Stacks. And our show today is called What Happened?

[LAUGHTER]

MARLEE GIVENS

You did it.

FRED RASCOE

I'm going to put this on my CV as professional development. You better believe it. CHARLIE BENNETT: Fred, I don't even know how to follow this energy that you've brought to the radio show today. Negative energy.

CHARLIE BENNETT

What happened? FRED RASCOE: Negative capability. So I guess, Marlee, let's start with you.

FRED RASCOE

That's a good idea.

CHARLIE BENNETT

What we're going to do is a little round robin here. We're going to follow up on that long ago WTF in 2023 show. We're going to interview in pairs. So Fred, you and I are now going to check on Marlee and see if she's done anything that she said she would do, if anything happened that she didn't expect, and if there was anything that she is really proud of. All right.

FRED RASCOE

Answer all those questions.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Start this unprepared interview, Marlee. No, let's begin with what did you accomplish this year that you actually set out to accomplish?

MARLEE GIVENS

Meatballs.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You did it?

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah, I did.

CHARLIE BENNETT

So one meatball recipe a month?

MARLEE GIVENS

Yep. And I did not commit to making a new recipe every month.

FRED RASCOE

Loophole.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah, exactly. I mean, because we found that there were some favorites, and so I just kind of went back and had some repeats. But yeah, it's turned out to be, like, it's an easy thing that everybody loves. Do y'all want to talk about work? I mean, I can talk all of seven minutes about different meatball recipes I made.

FRED RASCOE

Meatballs relate to librarianship somehow.

MARLEE GIVENS

It's not about libraries at all.

CHARLIE BENNETT

We're going to let everybody in on the process of the show, I guess. Yes, I want to start with meatball. And then, by about two minutes in, I want to make sure we move into--

MARLEE GIVENS

No, I'm kind of done talking about--

CHARLIE BENNETT

No, I do have a question.

MARLEE GIVENS

You do? OK.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Which was more important, a recipe every month, or a meatball recipe every month, or just the practice of trying out foodstuff? Which was the driver for this one?

MARLEE GIVENS

It became the third thing. Because I mean, committing to a certain kind of recipe every month, that was fun. I'm going to do it next week. But I'm going to choose something different, like, chicken thighs or something, vegetarian, or you know. Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

If you're listening, you might have heard Fred cough. You should just know that we have one recovering sick person, he says. He says he's not contagious.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah. I think I'm well past the contagion stage.

CHARLIE BENNETT

All right. Yeah. We've been saying that a lot the past few years.

MARLEE GIVENS

You're just in the you've just worn yourself out for a week stage.

FRED RASCOE

Anyway, Marlee, what about work? Something that I pulled from our past show is that you were going to lean into figuring out the details of the LibGuide process. So LibGuides is the set of online resources that the librarians curate on the GT library website. You were in a massive redesign and renovation of the whole thing.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. Y'all were part of that. We finished that part. Then we have some colleagues who just have much more of a history of using LibGuides in their practice of librarianship. They wanted to do things other than what we had set out to do. CHARLIE BENNETT: The best practices? They wanted just to make other kinds of guides. We're, like, OK. Now we're ready to move on to those. One of the things we did this summer was we did a review. We created a rubric. We got volunteers.

We had everyone take a look at all the guides that we had on the website and kind of figured out there were some little tiny fixes.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I just had a hot flash on the back of my neck. I know I was in one of those meetings.

MARLEE GIVENS

You were, yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I can't remember if I did everything that I was supposed to do.

MARLEE GIVENS

It's OK. It's OK. That's a thing that I think we'll just do every year. But based on, well, we sort of got this set in shape, and now we're working on things, like, what about other kinds of topics, guides that are either more of like a deep dive, or complimentary resources, or they're about a topic, like LGBTQ or something like that. CHARLIE BENNETT: That's interesting.

Because the thing that stuck out to me, relistening to our segments from the beginning of the year was the phrase, how much effort does it take to keep them, the LibGuides in shape. That was kind of the thing on your mind at the time, but then it seems to have fallen away and gone back to more innovation or development. No, I would say that I have not given you the whole story or the whole picture yet. No. I mean, we have ended up having monthly meetings with one person in particular.

A lot of it is really like re-explaining, figuring out a new way to explain what we were going for in doing the redo. We really approached all of our training and everything from a high level, a conceptual level. We are going to adopt a new philosophy of putting these things together. That was too high for some of our colleagues.

We really needed to get down to, without giving someone just a straight checklist of what to do, but someone who needed to know what do you really mean, how many things per page can I have, and how many pages can I have. After several meetings, I think it's actually becoming clearer. It's helped us retool our training materials. We've now got a set of guidelines and a rubric and, I think, a better sense that people do need these frameworks and these tools.

So we'll do more with that in the coming year.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I imagine there must be at least one other librarian listening right now who has that experience of trying to develop something new through stated values and expectations and then discovers that the thing that has to be developed is the actual tools, or the step-by-step instructions of some kind.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. Things that we've experienced 10 years ago or whatever with the library really setting out to change itself fundamentally, and we all felt, like, well, we need the vision of where we're going to end up. That was one thing. But we also needed to have frameworks and tools and documentation and figure out how we were going to get ourselves through this process. It happens in large and small cases.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I like how we just sort of stumbled onto a work moral. We started with meatballs and then we ended with a way to approach library-wide innovation in a practical way. We're about to hit the end of this segment. So I want to ask, was there a happy surprise?

MARLEE GIVENS

A happy surprise was the library mentoring program. I just had a vague goal to do something with mentoring at the start of the year. It's just become one of my favorite things that I did all year.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Luckily, I'm in the mentoring program. So we can talk more about that during my interview. This is Lost in the Stacks. We'll be back with more assessment and reflection after a music set.

MARLEE GIVENS

And you can file this at under BF503.B63.

[MUSIC - REGINA SPEKTOR, "OLDER AND TALLER"]

MARLEE GIVENS

(SINGING) I remembered you older and taller, but you're younger and smaller.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MARLEE GIVENS

FRED RASCOE

"Life Is a Problem" by Sister OM Terrell and before that, "Older and Taller" by Regina Spektor. Those are songs about accomplishment or at least aspirational accomplishment.

[THEME MUSIC]

FRED RASCOE

MARLEE GIVENS

This is Lost in the Stacks, and our show today is called "What Happened?" Wat happen?

FRED RASCOE

Yay.

MARLEE GIVENS

At the beginning of the year, we talked about our plans for the new year, and now we're taking stock of our situations.

FRED RASCOE

So Charlie, it is your turn. We're going to find out what happened with you.

CHARLIE BENNETT

OK.

FRED RASCOE

Specifically, let's start same way we started with Marlee. What did you accomplish this year that you set out to accomplish? CHARLIE BENNETT: It's a funny question because I achieved the outcome I set out to do, but I had no idea what I was going to do to get there. And so I didn't actually accomplish anything I set out to do, but I got-- Wait. You had a goal, but you didn't know how to achieve the goal?

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah, Charlie you're kind of vague booking here. What was--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah. So-- and I don't do that anymore. I'm totally off social media. Part of my professional development-- since we're talking about work, part of my professional development was to add more service, to actually expand into national and maybe even call it international but expansive kind of associations and do more service. And when I was told that I needed to do that, part of why I hadn't is because I hadn't really given it a lot of thought. Now, I am, at my core, a very lazy person.

I am inertial in all ways. So you get me started, you know, I can go for a long time.

FRED RASCOE

The inertia keeps going.

CHARLIE BENNETT

My brakes are real bad, right? But I'm hard to start. So I was lucky, though. I'm supposed to do more service, and then immediately I got called on something I had said earlier in the year, where I said, well, listen, I don't really want to do it, but if no one else volunteers, I'm happy to help. And so then I got the call, like, hey, no one volunteered. No one even said anything, so you're it.

FRED RASCOE

So this wasn't, I said I was going to do more service to the profession. Let me see how I can do. That this was something that just kind of-- CHARLIE BENNETT: It just happened. --fell into. CHARLIE BENNETT: It just happened. Someone said, who will be the chair of this committee? And I said, look, I don't want to, but I will help if necessary. And of course, it was necessary because no one else said anything.

And then, also, I was asked to be on the board of a nonprofit that supports library staff. And I tell you, that's some very easy service, especially when it's a beginning organization. I've been to two meetings. And mostly, I've said, can you explain that a little bit more? OK, excellent. And then I voted. So yeah, get yourself on a board as soon as you can. So yeah, I accomplished my service increase. I did that. And also, I did not quit, which was an accomplishment.

MARLEE GIVENS

Quit? CHARLIE BENNETT: Quit, like just-- Your job?

CHARLIE BENNETT

--bale. Yeah.

MARLEE GIVENS

Wow.

CHARLIE BENNETT

We're being honest, right?

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

We're being honest with each other. Yeah. It's been important each year now to catch. When you have a chronic illness, you recognize the symptoms coming, right? And you might put in preventative measures. Hey, Fred, why don't you go ahead and turn the mics off for 10 seconds.

FRED RASCOE

OK. I'm all right. We're talking about--

CHARLIE BENNETT

OK, I was gonna give you a cough moment.

FRED RASCOE

I will in a second.

CHARLIE BENNETT

OK.

FRED RASCOE

We're talking about being honest so-- and you're using a terminal illness analogy here. I just want--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Chronic. Chronic illness.

FRED RASCOE

Chronic illness. I want to draw the lines here between analogy and real life here.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I was really hoping that we could just have the silence and nobody notice. Symptoms arise, and then you can put treatments into place or preventative measures.

FRED RASCOE

Charlie? Charlie, are you ill? That's what I want to know.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You know, let's, again, be honest. I do have a recurring condition. I'm not gonna tell anybody about it, but it's something I have. And when I notice symptoms increasing, then I have to do something about it. I have the same thing.

FRED RASCOE

I didn't mean for you to-- but just all of a sudden on the air, I got worried.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah. No, I'm totally with you. And let's-- I think it's better for everyone in the world if we destigmatize things like chronic illness and mental disability and things like that. But all that to say there are moments in, say, I don't know, October every year where I think, I don't know why, why am I doing this? I don't know why I'm in this profession. I'm here because of inertia. Maybe I should do something and get out of it.

And then I just have to, like, I don't know, like a werewolf, I have to go away from everyone who's part of the team and get it out of my system. And so, yeah, I did that, too. This is sounding much more like a vague booking kind of status--

MARLEE GIVENS

Well, actually--

CHARLIE BENNETT

--than I should have ever let it be.

MARLEE GIVENS

--the last time I did that was about six years ago. And what I learned was, oh, there's really no place that's really that much better.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh, yes, you're talking about workplaces?

MARLEE GIVENS

Workplaces, yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Last time you really considered, do I want to stay here?

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. CHARLIE BENNETT: All the problems that exist in an institution or an organization recur in other organizations. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

And so unless it's a personal thing, like I can't stand the sight of G or T, then maybe I could go away and find some other initials. But really, any other academic library I went to would have the same kind of problems that occur.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

And I don't know that any other industry would have me. I am far too dug and my skills are so honed to academic librarianship that I don't know that I could ever bale.

MARLEE GIVENS

Nope.

FRED RASCOE

Charlie, again, I want to-- I guess-- you said, chronic illness, and I think my brain heard terminal illness.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You are literally off the hook, Fred. Don't worry about it.

FRED RASCOE

OK. Yeah. So I didn't mean to drill down. CHARLIE BENNETT: Fred, don't worry. I won't die anytime soon. Be like 5, 10 years. Let's talk about something more optimistic. What's a happy surprise? That you don't have a terminal illness. Surprise.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Happy surprise? You know, I don't think in terms of happy surprises.

MARLEE GIVENS

No?

CHARLIE BENNETT

No.

MARLEE GIVENS

Well, how about my happy surprise? Which was the mentoring program, and you wanted to say a little bit more about that. CHARLIE BENNETT: Oh, right, yeah. So I didn't want a mentor. I didn't want to be a mentor. And I was told-- oh, perfect, thank you, Marlee. I was told that I needed to be one. And that's not-- it was not a term of employment, but it was kind of a term of employment in a way, in its own way. And I started doing it.

And it's a happy surprise because it's almost more about me than it is about the mentoree in terms of the benefit. Like, having to have these conversations and reflect on my work up until this point. That's what the experience should be like for mentors.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah.

MARLEE GIVENS

Absolutely. Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

So that was really nice. I do wonder if my mentoree is getting anything out of this, but we'll see. I'm sure there'll be some kind of assessment.

MARLEE GIVENS

We'll find out. We're going to do like a focus group thing in February, so.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh, I can hardly wait.

MARLEE GIVENS

Well, you're listening to Lost in the Stacks, and we'll find out more about what happened on the left side of the hour. And I'll probably apologize to Charlie again. CHARLIE BENNETT: You got to stop. You got to stop.

[THEME MUSIC]

MARLEE GIVENS

[MUSIC - MISSION OF BURMA, "DEAD POOL"]

DAVIA NELSON

This is Davia Nelson of the Kitchen Sisters, and you're listening to Lost in the Stacks, the research library rock and roll radio show on WREK Atlanta.

[MUSIC - MISSION OF BURMA, "DEAD POOL"]

DAVIA NELSON

(SINGING) Headlights burn like torches on a way to a war. Tell me what it was that we were fighting for.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Today's show is called "What happened?" It's a bookend for 2023 to go with our show "WTF" in 2023, that broadcast the second week of January this year. Now, in that episode's middle section, I read from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. So I figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Do not confound yourself by considering the whole of your future life and by dwelling upon the multitude and greatness of the pains or troubles to which you may probably be exposed, but ask yourself about such as our present. Is there anything intolerable and unsufferable in them? You will be ashamed to own it, and then recollect that it is neither what is past nor what is future, which can oppress you. It is only what is present.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHARLIE BENNETT

And this will be much diminished if you circumscribe or consider it by itself and chide your own mind if it cannot bear up against this one thing thus alone.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHARLIE BENNETT

File this set under HE553.W54.

[THEME MUSIC]

CHARLIE BENNETT

[MUSIC - HOLLY GOLIGHTLY, "IT'S ALL ME"]

CHARLIE BENNETT

And it's all.

MARLEE GIVENS

That was "It's All Me" by Holly Golightly and before that, "Dead Pool" by Mission of Burma, songs about wondering where plans went wrong.

[THEME MUSIC]

MARLEE GIVENS

CHARLIE BENNETT

This is Lost in the Stacks, and today's show is called, "What happened?" At the beginning of 2023, we talked about what we thought was coming. And now, we want to know how it went.

MARLEE GIVENS

And now it is time for us to talk to Fred and for Fred to help us find out what happened.

FRED RASCOE

Oh, man, I'm still on the thinking that Charlie was going to die.

MARLEE GIVENS

Oh.

FRED RASCOE

That I did in the last segment.

MARLEE GIVENS

I was trying to get your mind off of that.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, I'm so sorry.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Fred, I hope that you'll remember that we are all going to die.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah. That's actually true.

CHARLIE BENNETT

And that everyone we know is going to die.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yep, yeah.

FRED RASCOE

And then in 20 years or so, you're going to tell me, you know, actually, I am going to die. And I'm going to believe you then just because of this time. CHARLIE BENNETT: I promise, Fred, that when I know I'm going to die, I won't tell you, so we won't end up in an awkward situation again. That sounds great. Let's go with that.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Did you pick up the guitar this year, Fred?

FRED RASCOE

Oh, man, I did in January as a conscious effort to meet the resolution that I made on this show. So this show directly influenced me to do that. And it just like got less and less--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

--over--

CHARLIE BENNETT

That'll happen.

FRED RASCOE

--the year. Like with most things, it just-- things just fade away, I guess.

MARLEE GIVENS

I mean, I kind of wonder if we need like a new thing. Actually, I have a new thing. I don't want to make this about me, but I did start going to the pool again.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Nice.

MARLEE GIVENS

And it's-- but I have an accountability buddy.

FRED RASCOE

Oh, to make sure that you go to exercise. CHARLIE BENNETT: That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a band or anything anymore--

MARLEE GIVENS

No.

FRED RASCOE

--that I have to practice for.

MARLEE GIVENS

Not like someone you want to show off to or--

FRED RASCOE

Right.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You know what would probably really make it happen is if you started a YouTube channel.

FRED RASCOE

Oh, man.

CHARLIE BENNETT

And played guitar on it once a week.

FRED RASCOE

The career aspiration--

MARLEE GIVENS

Right, right.

FRED RASCOE

--of millions of 18-year-olds to be a career YouTuber.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Fred, I have some notes from the show at the beginning of this year. And one of the phrases I wanted to throw at you and see what you said back to it is this. AI nihilism.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, I don't know if it went to nihilism, but it was definitely a curiosity sparked throughout the year. And a lot of that curiosity manifested itself in shows that we did throughout the year. CHARLIE BENNETT: So the nihilism was your imagined attitude towards AI, but then it became-- Yeah, it'll destroy everything.

CHARLIE BENNETT

--you produced like five artificial intelligence shows this year.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, and I think I'm still really on the fence about it. I see lots of good things about it and lots of terrible things about it. And I also see a certain kind of inevitability about it.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You know, everything you just said is how I feel about death.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, so. And once again, Charlie, I want to apologize. MARLEE GIVENS: Oh, no, is Charlie going to start producing shows about death in the new year?

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh, challenge accepted.

FRED RASCOE

Right.

MARLEE GIVENS

Oh, no.

FRED RASCOE

Let's do that. Death in the stacks. CHARLIE BENNETT: Fred, what did you accomplish this year that you actually set out to accomplish? You know, I thought about this before we came to the show. And the things in my professional life in librarianship that I want to, because they're not tied to specific things or projects or ideas. I think, like, well, I want to meet deadlines. I want to-- if someone's relying on me to do something by a certain, I want to do that, you know?

CHARLIE BENNETT

It sounds practice-oriented.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, I guess my brain just like goes to the be a good employee, which I don't know if that's healthy or not. But that's like where my brain goes. I just want to make sure that I'm not the reason that something--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

--that's going on doesn't get done.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I know you haven't had another career, but in other jobs that you've had, did you have the same kind of attitude?

FRED RASCOE

Oh, yeah, I never wanted to be the reason that something failed, even like back when I was a cashier. When I made a mistake back at Phar-Mor in Charlotte, North Carolina, if I like rang up something wrong or double charged, just like, oh, mortified. And that just carried on into my middle age.

MARLEE GIVENS

And yet, you're still worried even after--

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, I know for a fact that-- I'm very confident that if I make some error, or if I slack off and, oh, I'm just going to ignore that email, I probably won't get fired. But the mortification within me of not doing that or of behaving in that way would trump anything that I feel about getting fire.

MARLEE GIVENS

I don't know that we're currently doing anything where the stakes are that high.

FRED RASCOE

We're not. No, it's all internal.

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

Yeah.

MARLEE GIVENS

I've been using the phrase, let's give ourselves grace. Like, with all of my project teams, I'm like, it doesn't matter if we didn't set out everything. Or if you volunteered to do something, and then you didn't do it, like, give yourself a break. None of this really matters. I mean, it matters, but it's not--

CHARLIE BENNETT

See that feeling you just had where you thought you had to add--

MARLEE GIVENS

Yeah. CHARLIE BENNETT: --it does matter. That's the problem that we're all suffering from right now. Yep. It does. But I think that what I mean is like it doesn't matter if Fred individually didn't test a software because lots of other people have been doing the test. And eventually, Fred will get to use the software. And it's fine to give feedback at that point, too.

FRED RASCOE

Right.

MARLEE GIVENS

You know?

FRED RASCOE

Yeah, it's those kinds of things that I think about like, oh, that's what I have to do. Not, oh, I need to start this project or this service. It's usually that internal checklist of making sure that I'm not the reason that something didn't happen like it was supposed to.

CHARLIE BENNETT

So how did you end up committing yourself to two publications that you were planning on at the beginning of the year?

FRED RASCOE

I don't think about, or I don't consider it as-- I don't like turn down things in order to avoid that. I just say like, oh, do I want to accept that? Yes, I'll accept it. And then I will do the revisions. I will-- it's like, hey, Fred, we need you to revise this. We need you to add the citations here. Yep. Yep. I'm not going to be the reason that this article doesn't happen.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I am positive but have no knowledge that this somehow maps onto a kind of philosophy or religious kind of idea of the world. Like, Fred's sort of if I'm responsible for it, I want it to be-- I want to not be the block in it. And I will accept what arrives, but I feel no need to drive forward. Like, I feel that must be some kind of religious attitude.

FRED RASCOE

I don't know. I would hate to dive too far into this because I just I don't want to know that much about myself. But I do think that if I have a pretty good grasp of if something is not important, and that I can't control, I can let that go. But if it's something that I can control, and it contributes to whatever task it is that I can do, I'm good with that. So I'm pretty good. It's like, hey, that's out of my control. I'm pretty zen about that, I guess. So maybe that's religious. I don't know.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah. Have you been keeping track of your reading?

FRED RASCOE

No. I started to again at the beginning of the year--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

--calendar year.

CHARLIE BENNETT

That's the start of an arbitrary time period. I began that. Yeah.

FRED RASCOE

I did not. But I can tell you right now I'm reading a book about eels.

CHARLIE BENNETT

You know, for the episode at the beginning of the year, you were reading a book about wasps.

FRED RASCOE

Oh, back to animals.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Is your book about eels awful and foreboding? Does it describe things that eels do that would make us cringe?

FRED RASCOE

Eels are pretty disgusting. They are covered in slime, but they're also pretty amazing. And they're very mysterious. No one knows how eels breed. They live in fresh water. They go to the ocean. No one knows what happens, but they come back in their youth. The offspring come back. And no one knows what happens to the adults. They assume that they die at sea, but no one knows. No one's ever observed it.

MARLEE GIVENS

I am so happy. This is making me so happy. And I think it's a great point to end on. Eels are weird. Yay! You are listening to Lost in the Stacks, and we have been figuring out what happened in 2023.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I don't think we've been doing that, but we've been having a good time trying. File this set under PZ7.B8126, and then shut off the mics and have yourself a cough, Fred.

[MUSIC - NEIL YOUNG, "WORLD ON A STRING"]

CHARLIE BENNETT

[MUSIC - JOHN LENNON, "SURPRISE, SURPRISE (SWEET BIRD OF PARADOX)"]

You just heard "Surprise Surprise, Sweet Bird of Paradox" by John Lennon and before that "Zig Zag" by Cheap Time. And we started with "World on a String" by Neil Young, songs about life's surprises, both good and bad.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CHARLIE BENNETT

This is Lost in the Stacks, and today's show was called "What happened?" We looked back at what we planned at the beginning of the year. And we asked ourselves, what happened? But that's not exactly what we did. That's what we planned, but then what happened in the show was something kind of different. I think we dug in. Fred, is there a moral or a lesson you can pull from this show what we said and how it went?

FRED RASCOE

Adapt. Be a little zen about things.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Nice. Marlee?

MARLEE GIVENS

I think you should only make resolutions about things that will truly make you happy and just not worry about the rest. It'll-- whatever happens happens.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Nice.

MARLEE GIVENS

What about you, Charlie?

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh, quite clearly it's that we all die, and nothing matters. No, that's not true. You should have a good time whatever you're doing. And as Warren Zevon said, "Enjoy every sandwich." OK, Fred, roll the credits, and see if you can put a joke in there somehow. [MUSIC - HENRY MANCINI, "WHAT'S HAPPENING!! THEME"] CHARLIE BENNETT: Lost in the Stacks is a collaboration between WREK Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Library, written and produced by me, Charlie Bennett, Fred Rascoe, and Marlee Givens.

MARLEE GIVENS

Legal counsel and a book about the duckbilled platypus for Fred Rascoe--

CHARLIE BENNETT

Nice.

MARLEE GIVENS

--were provided by the Burrus Intellectual Property Law Group in Atlanta, Georgia. CHARLIE BENNETT: Philip knows you.

FRED RASCOE

Special thanks to, well, I don't-- I won't let this become us thanking ourselves, so thanks, as always, to each and every one of you for listening.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Our web page is library.gatech.e du/lostinthestacks, where you'll find our most recent episode, a link to our podcast feed, and a web form if you want to get in touch with us.

MARLEE GIVENS

Next week's show is called "Three Themes." It's not quite seven fishes, but we are getting closer to Christmas all the time.

FRED RASCOE

(SINGING) We three themes that travel afar.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh, that's even better than a seven fishes joke.

FRED RASCOE

OK, so yeah, the void is staring back at me, Charlie. Time for our last song today. As our new year approaches, we tend to think about promises we make to ourselves, and how keeping those promises can be pretty complicated and intimidating. This last song we'll play today is the title song from the musical Promises, Promises--

CHARLIE BENNETT

What?

FRED RASCOE

--by the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. CHARLIE BENNETT: What are you doing? This song features plenty of time and tempo changes from three four time to four four to three eight to five four and few others, I'm sure. I'm no musicologist. It's essentially a prog rock song disguised as a show tune.

CHARLIE BENNETT

Oh.

FRED RASCOE

It's one of my favorite songs of all time. The cast of the musical found it so complicated and intimidating that Burt Bacharach had to hire the one person he knew that could handle it, his favorite singer, Dionne Warwick. So she recorded it so that the cast could hear how it was supposed to be sung.

CHARLIE BENNETT

This is an amazing story already.

FRED RASCOE

Warwick recorded the song about the promise of hope and joy and love in what she called "the most expensive demo ever recorded." She decided to release it. Here's hoping that your new year is filled with promise. This is "Promises, Promises" by Dionne Warwick right here on Lost in the Stacks. Have a great weekend, everybody. The void is still staring back.

CHARLIE BENNETT

I'll just fade it out. [MUSIC - HENRY MANCINI, "WHAT'S HAPPENING!! THEME"]

[MUSIC - BURT BACHARACH, "PROMISES, PROMISES"]

CHARLIE BENNETT

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