h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I share your puzzlement Dread, which is why I found it so surprising that an essay written around 1960 mentions the practice, and librarians today are still coming across it.

Perhaps Steinbeck popularised it!

What a weird tradition!

I love finding things in books. Once, I found a beautifully written list of affirmations a woman had left - I bet she was upset to lose it. A Filipina woman lost her aunty's mass card in a book (I handed that in.)

On the subject of the thread, I loathe my fellow customers in supermarkets who (a) take (or try to) 40 items through the express line or (b) squeeze past me as I stand in the checkout line, and and walk out of the shop, cos the only way out is through a check out and they'd be stopped if they went through an unoccupied one.

For other "odd bookmarks" see (starts about halfway down): http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol7/LJ_7.1.html

BACON - A Los Angeles librarian reports she finally found it necessary to revoke a gentleman's library card. Because her repeated letters to him, telephone calls, and face-to-face pleas still failed to break him of the peculiar habit of using strips of raw bacon as bookmarks. -Boyd's Book of Odd Facts

"A librarian who worked at Columbia in the late 1960s recounted "rumors that a book had been turned in to the main circulation desk at Butler Library with a fried egg (presumably a very dry, crispy one) in it as a bookmark." A British librarian recalled a rasher of bacon used as a bookmark in a volume returned to her public library in Enfield, Middlesex" http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/050151.html

"The list of found items ranges from expected objects like tickets, letters, grocery lists, bobby pins,photos to more unusual items such as bullets, condoms, and a laminated cockroach. A recurring theme is finding a slice of bacon, sometimes cooked, sometimes raw. In one case it was described as "book jerky" because it had been in the book so long." http://home.earthlink.net/~lainefarley/bookmarkcollectortales/2003.11.01_arch.html

Used to have a link to a really good librarians site, think the owner/person who ran it was based in Austin or somewhere.
Just did a search and can;t find it but they had loads of good stories. I did find a link to a group called the Anarchist Librarians, which sounds a little

I believe I had a link to that site way up near the beginning. However, I believe that it was finally removed, as it had been taken over by a porn site....

Try some of these: http://www.librarian.net/linky.html

Hmmm, John Steinbeck books would improve considerably if they came with free bacon.

On my way to the library I met a girl who had just borrowed a book on abnormal psychology. There was a inlaid photo of two girls smiling at the camera in it. I suppose one of them was the previous loaner.

We've never had a laminated cockroach or a fried egg, thank heavens, but most of the other objects mentioned have turned up in our returned books at some time or another. I am astounded at the frequency of the bacon thing...

Is the bacon raw or cooked?

In our case it was raw, but from the sounds of the other reports linked to above, cooked bacon also happens...

I suppose there is the very (VERY, very odd) patron who would be looking for a bookmark and a strip of bacon is all that comes to hand. However, I doubt very much that all of these the raw (and cooked) bacon incidents are anything but people who know the "legend" of the raw bacon (or cooked, depending on the story) and think it amusing to do it.

That was a good link, Mudhooks! (the first one.)

I mentioned somewhere, way back when, that when i worked at Chapters, my ex (then not ex) bought a book and found a cartoon in it. When I reported it, I found that someone had lately been inserting cartoons of their own making into the books. These were not really racy, per se, but more sort of Playboy cartoonish with buxom nudes. The one my husband had Santa in bed with two well-endowed nudes and some witty line (which I forget, now) below.

My only reason for reporting it was that I knew that there were morons who would think that this was something Chapters was doing. Which, of course, was exactly what happened and we got several complaints about the "pornography" that Chapters was selling.... despite our assertions to the contrary. Idiots.

ATM Fraud:

http://www.usna.edu/SecuInfoPers/ATMSCAM_files/v3_document.htm
http://www.tolee.com/html/ATM_fraud.htm

Jeez Louise! Had do idea it was that easy to commit ATM fraud, I will beware.

i found an interesting bookmark once in a used book: a ticket to a harvard-yale game from the 30's. there was also some pressed lily of the valley which could have been even older, as it was an edition of sheridan's plays fron the middle of the 19th century. to add to the strangeness, i bought the book here in france.

Wow, riotact, there could be a whole romantic story about that... If you are into that sort of thing, you could write it... About a man and a woman who went to that game, then went to France, I can see it now.

Makes me think of a couple who were guests at the hotel I worked at. They were visiting on their anniversary, their 53rd or so.

Apparently, they were both at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. They were watching the swimming. He was in one set of bleachers and she in another, facing each ther across the pool. http://www.germaniainternational.com/images/bookssetof1936olympic26.jpg
They spotted each other and kept looking at each other. When the events were over, they filed out with the crowd of spectators, both thinking that, in the huge mass of people, they wouldn't spot the other, and litle expecting to. Fate intervened, and they found themselves close together in the crowd.

They chatted and, before the week was out, they were married....

Sigh... very romantic.

The following is a copy of what I sent to the head office of a local drigstore chain:

Recently, I was in the all-night drug store . "I was at the cash behind two women whose purchases were being put through by the manager. Despite the growing line of customers, the manager continued to have an animated conversation with both the customers, laughing and carrying on.

Most of the discussion appeared to centre around their regular visits to the store. It took a full 15 minutes to put through the womens' purchases (despite their not having all THAT much to put trhough). This even included a 5 minute discussion (I timed it) about how many Optimum points the second woman should use.

Finally, in the midst of this discussion, the manager deigned to call someone else to the front. He finally arrived just before the two women left.

Despite the fact that there were by now more than 10 obviously infuriated customers lined up at the cash, this woman did not feel it necessary to make an apology for making us stand around waiting while she had lengthy personal conversations with these two customers. When I finished my purchase I turned to her and said. "Do you not feel that we are owed an apology for making us stand here all this time?" She just ignored me."

The next day I got an apology from someone at head office and today, an apology from one of the owners of the store involved, with the offer of a gift card for the store.

I don't have the need for a gift card. However, I figured that, in the interest of making a point, I asked that they send a gift card to a local organization that helps women and children escaping abusive homes. I figured there would likely be a woman who might need it more than I.

Did you mention that you, yourself were in retailing and did not consider this professional behaviour fron that point of view?

Yes, I did.