This past weekend, on his popular Prairie Home Companion variety show, Garrison Keillor presented another episode of his “Guy Noir” radio drama. At the point in the show where a slinky, steamy love interest usually comes to his office door, there was this exchange:
GK: I went back to the office and I was just about to lie down on the sofa, when (KNOCKS ON DOOR) —- Yeah. The door’s unlocked. Come on in. (DOOR OPEN) Hi there. (FOOTSTEPS) (BRIDGE) She was short and heavyset, in a blue-green plaid jumper and a navy blue cardigan. There was something about the glasses on the chain and pencil tucked over her ear that made my heart go pitter-pat.
SS: The name’s Lola Manicotti, Mr. Noir. I’m from California.
GK: You’re a librarian, aren’t you.
SS: How did you know?
GK: The slight indentation on the side of your right index finger and the ink smear from the due date stamp. That and your name tag. San Francisco Public Library. What brings you to Minnesota?
*giggle*snort*
I’ll have to listen to this one online, since I missed APC this weekend…
Guy Noir is all stereotypes anyway! 🙂
“Guy Noir” is a stereotype of private investigators, our cousins in the information profession. And the characters speak all sorts of bogus languages — most recently bogus Swedish. Hey, it’s about as true-to-life as an editorial cartoon. The show isn’t exactly keeping to documentary levels of fairness in depicting rural life, Norwegians, or Lutherans, either.
I mean, what must Francophiles think of the fake French spoken at the Café Bœuf?
Guy Noir stereotypes a librarian
I hope we all realize that if we take ourselves too seriously, we become vulnerable to slams. I like Guy Noir, as Garrison gently pokes fun at the human race.
Re:Guy Noir stereotypes a librarian
Do you think I should stop wearing my blue-green plaid jumper???
Re:Guy Noir stereotypes a librarian
Well, you can keep wearing that, but the glasses on the chain must go!