Unsteady pimping

As the Cokesnorting Librarian's father is fond of reminding him, the word "pimp" used to mean something vastly different than what it does now. Back in the 1950s, it meant to pull someone's leg. "Don't pimp me!" you might say to your greaser friend when he told you the bulge in his pocket was a switchblade.

Now (and by that, the Cokesnorting Librarian means, last January) we have the Pimp My Bookcart contest, sponsored by the patently unfunny comic strip Unshelved. (This is an issue that the Cokesnorting Librarian will deal with in forthcoming posts.). This was the winning entry:



Two observations:

1. Once librarians co-opted it, the word "pimp" lost all pop-cultural capital.
2. That won?!?

About the Cokesnorting Librarian

The Cokesnorting Librarian is an MLS student at a Large State University. He has two jobs—one at the Satellite Campus of the Large State University in public services, and another at a Prohibitively Expensive Private University in technical services. All of his work and study take place in a Large Metropolitan Area in the Southern United States.

Above all else, the Cokesnorting Librarian loves libraries—they are the holy place of the mind. He haunted them growing up in a Midwestern College Town, sought sanctuary in them while attending a Slightly Less Prohibitively Expensive Private University, and had by far the greatest work experience of his life at the public library in the Midwestern College Town where he grew up. The Cokesnorting Librarian used to be a Cokesnorting Instructor, while he was earning his Master’s in Another Subject at a Renowned Party School. Halfway through his first semester teaching, the Cokesnorting Librarian realized that this métier was not for him. And he looked to that Party School’s academic library and saw not only a way out, but a means of fulfilling his destiny. The Cokesnorting Librarian believes that the academic library is the true heart of the university. Should this blog ever reach a point where this belief is no longer apparent, the Cokesnorting Librarian will put it out to pasture.

That being said…

The Cokesnorting Librarian loves libraries like one loves a sibling—an unconditional love prone to fits of befuddlement, frustration, and murderous anger. He sees a lot of things that he doesn’t like about academic libraries and academic librarians. Sometimes he casts his wide net to include librarians in general. Most of the time, he just needs to vent some professional and scholarly spleen. He hopes it will be helpful, cathartic, puerile, and funny. Again, if it ever becomes too cynical, too scornful, too mean-spirited—pasture time.

With that in mind, the Cokesnorting Librarian feels compelled to append the following disclaimer to potential readers of his blog, before they proceed any further.

So, dear reader.

If you:

• Have nary an unkind word to say about the academic institution that retains you on its payroll,
• Are getting any student traffic whatsoever on that library blog you’re moderating,
• Have never noticed that “old-book” smell that makes you so sentimental bears a faint resemblance to the smell of urine,
• Think those BIs you’re conducting are really making a difference to your little freshman fascists,
• Regularly pander to the short attention spans of the aforementioned little fascists,
• Work for that glorified daycare that is the modern American public library,
• Consider yourself a fan of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or anime of any kind,
• Are a virgin,
• Have never engaged in recreational drug use,
• Really really really don’t like interacting with people,
• Love cats,
• Don’t want to hear the cosmic howl of the academic librarian’s raging id,
• Are put off by the liberal use of the word “motherfucker,”

…this might not be the blog for you.