Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
Yikes! I truly cannot answer this because I promote kindness, not violence (particularly when directed at ME.) If your friend has a beef with the Wall, I’d like to respond to it. With words. On Post-Its.
![Why do girls enjoy getting pet so much? [Response: Because we do]](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/aw102518-3.jpg)
Short answer: English is weirder than a bread beard. Longer answer: Modern English is a mix of Old English & Anglo Saxon (Germanic), Norman (French), and Latin, with many other loan words acquired through trade & colonies. No effort was made to standardize English orthography (IOW spelling) until Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. “Mood” was often “mode” or “mod” until around 1600. “Food” was “foda” in Old English, then “fode” “fude” and “foode” before finally settling on “food” in around 1700. “Good” was, in Old English, “god,” “godum” “godra” and “gode”, and then variously “gowde,” “guyde” goud” “gowid,” etc., “Good” began appearing about 1400 or so. Take pity on anyone who has to learn English as an adult.
Isn’t it wonderful when you have someone like that in your life? Make sure you let her know how much you value her!
Be interested in someone’s story. Ask questions. Be a good listener. Reveal yourself. Suggest an outing. And sometimes go with the flow and let your friend direct the plan. But first check your pulse: are you depleted or overwhelmed? You may not be in a place to be that friend.
![Is [name redacted] a Goblin or a Ghoul?](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/aw102418-7b.jpg)
It depends. Are they a) a malevolent, demonic, small ugly creature who causes harm and mischief, or are they b) an undead being who frequents graveyards and eats human flesh? (a = goblin, b=ghoul). We have the Greeks to thank for goblins (“kobalus” meant “knave” or “rogue”) and the Arabs to thank for ghouls. Goblins have populated the European imagination for at least a millenium; ghouls are a more recent addition that came with the translation of 1,001 Nights into French in the 19th Century. For more spooky etymologies, see the Oxford English Dictionary (BC only): bit.ly/BC-oxford-english.
Communicate, but don’t suffocate. Give him enough breathing room to miss you, and most importantly enjoy your own semester even though you’ll miss him!
I know, life really is hard sometimes. I have full faith that if you keep at it, you’ll get what you need. You’re working with the Career Center about the internship, right? (bit.ly/BC-career)
Yes! Check it out: bit.ly/bc-reservoirs. And the history is here: bit.ly/bc-lc
Thanks for being such a caring friend. University Counseling Services (bit.ly/BCCounselingSvcs) can help you: “Students and others who desire psychological advice regarding concerns about others may make an appointment.”
To be honest, I was feeling a little flat and hung up on things; but then I saw you…
This controversy seems to stem from the tragic encounter with the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm described in the FOTR. The text reads, “…the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings,” and later, “…its wings were spread from wall to wall.” Yet, Gandalf’s description of the defeat of the Balrog in The Two Towers suggests the it was unable to fly: “he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side.” Did Gandalf so destroy the Balrog that it was unable to fly to save itself? Are Balrogs the penguins of Tolkien’s universe? Were the wings merely a simile? In his foreword to the second edition, Tolkien admits that he “finds many defects, minor and major,” but “will pass over these in silence.” So perhaps this is one of the minor defects of this otherwise brilliant epic.
The wall is thrilled to say, we do! O’Neill has 5 SuperDrives available for loan at the 3rd Floor Circulation Desk. They can be borrowed for 4 hours at a time.
My library helpers say they are trying to resolve some issues with the vendor. I will update you when I find out more.
I sent one of my helpers out to listen for the 1 PM bells. The chimes (bit.ly/ChimesSound) sound before the hour strikes, of course, but the 1 o’clock bell struck at 1:59:47 according to my helper using time.gov. Are you gonna ding them for 13 seconds…?
I think T.S. Eliot was wrong about which month is cruelest, at least for college students and professors! October’s a busy month, for sure. When things calm down a little, take some time for yourself to reflect on what’s most important to you; you might find some of your commitments can be adjusted to fit your priorities. Sometimes, feeling overwhelmed comes from making someone else’s priorities your own. Also, it’s important to take breaks, even if it means having to tell someone that the thing that was going to be ready Friday will have to wait ’til Monday. I hope you can put this tired & busy time behind you soon!
If you are at a release station that has a keyboard, you will be able to print all of the jobs in your queue by holding down Shift and then using the mouse to click each job. I have reached out to my friends in IT to see if we can get more keyboards set up in the print areas.
Not really an O’Neill secret, but lower campus used to be wetter. Before my time, fortunately. bit.ly/bc-reservoirs
There are just so many good poems that this is a really tough one! What subjects do you enjoy? What styles? Eras? One place to go is the Poetry Foundation (bit.ly/PF-poems), where you can find editors’ picks, or browse by subject or school (style) of poetry from Poetry Magazine’s 100+ year history of publishing, with over 40,000 poems. On their newsletter page, you can sign up for poem-a-day via email. Here’s a nice poem about a wall: bit.ly/goodman-wall.
I recommend talking to the Office of Student Involvement (bc.edu/osi), who oversees student organizations.
