What is the most interesting/memorable question ever asked on the O’Neill answer wall?

There are so many interesting & memorable questions! So cruel to make me pick only one! Here’s one of many, a recent one: “Tell me something that is true, but that almost no one would agree with.” My answer: It is upsetting but true that the smell of old books is the smell of their decomposition. Which, in the case of paper, is a bit like vanilla: bit.ly/bc-old-books. Many questions make me leap into research, but this one really forced me to stop and think.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.