Thursday, July 26, 2018

lateral thinking - Do I Work with an Orangutan?


This morning I found myself face-down in front of a large building. It was obvious that I had taken a great fall from one of the rooms above me, but now I apparently had amnesia.
I went in.
I could tell that the building had been built by an American architect, as the ground floor was designated as the first floor, and I guessed that there might be a basement below me. I started going into random rooms, trying to jog my memory a bit.


1st floor: I poked my head into room 130 and saw someone with a deck of cards. She was staring intently at it, then flipped the top card over with great conviction. She then sighed sadly and scribbled something down on a notepad.


3rd floor: There were a bunch of unsavory mobster-types hanging out by room 364, so I kept going up.


4th floor: I couldn't seem to understand what anyone was talking about, so I continued up.


6th floor: I stopped in room 633 and mellowed out for exactly 7 minutes.


9th (top) floor: I looked into room 910 and was reminded that I had not looked in the basement, so I went back down for a look-see.


Basement: Ahhh! This was finally familiar! I snuggled right into my desk in room 25 and took a nap.



When I woke up I was home, in bed. What a strange dream that had been! Well, no worries, everyone dreams about work sometimes.



What is my job and where do I work?




Answer



You are a:



Librarian working in a library



and the rooms are:




Dewey Decimal Classifications



1st floor: I poked my head into room 130 and saw someone with a deck of cards. She was staring intently at it, then flipped the top card over with great conviction. She then sighed sadly and scribbled something down on a notepad.



Dewey Decimal Classification 130: Parapsychology and occultism
The woman is attempting to divine the future, and is either attempting to predict the top card of a deck (as a self-test) or is using the deck as a divination tool (see further: Tarot cards)



3rd floor: There were a bunch of unsavory mobster-types hanging out by room 364, so I kept going up.




Dewey Decimal Classification 364: Criminology
This is where books that study the criminal mind go, especially the minds of career criminals or particularly famous criminals.



4th floor: I couldn't seem to understand what anyone was talking about, so I continued up.



Dewey Decimal Category 400-499: Language
Linguistics, phonology, etymology, grammar, etc. They're all here, across a variety of languages, including "Hellenic languages; classical Greek" (480) and "Austronesian and other languages" (499)



6th floor: I stopped in room 633 and mellowed out for exactly 7 minutes.




Dewey Decimal Classification 633: Field and Plantation Crops
7 minutes is exactly 420 seconds.



9th (top) floor: I looked into room 910 and was reminded that I had not looked in the basement, so I went back down for a look-see.



Dewey Decimal Classification 910: Geography and Travel
Where did you come from? Where did you go?



Basement: Ahhh! This was finally familiar! I snuggled right into my desk in room 25 and took a nap.




Dewey Decimal Classification 025: Library operations
Get back to work!



Connection to title:



In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels, the Librarian of the magical Unseen University is an orangutan. (Don't call him a monkey!)



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