spelling mistakes; or how the librarian must guess the word

[depechemodefan]

One patron called the library.

patron: p
: me

p: can you tell me how to spell "genuous"? Like, "she was genuous"
me: *thinking* genuine? generous? Let's see what google has to say.
google: do you mean genius?
me: *to patron* the only word I found that sounds like "genuous" is "generous". It means "marked by abundance or amble proportions." It's spelled g-e-n...
p: g-n...
me: no, g-e-n...e-r...ous
p:g-e-n-r-o
me: no, it's g-e-n...e-r...ous
p: g-e-n-e-r-o-u-s.
me: right.

second person. It's one of the patrons we don't like, Mr. "we", since he's always talking about "we".

Mr. We: Hi, um, I was thinking today, and I was reading something, and I just have a question for you, if you're not busy.
Me: go ahead.
Mr. We: Well, it's a spelling of a word.
me: go ahead.
Mr. We: I need the spelling of "grandma" in "grandma seizure".
Me: grandma seizure? Oh ,wait, you mean "grand mal seizure". It's spelled "g-r-a-n-d-space- m-a-l". It's a french phrase
Mr. We: It has a "d" in it?
me: yes. "grand" is a french word, the d is silent.
Mr. We: but I never hear the "d" in grand ma seizure.
me: It's a french phrase. "g-r-a-n-d-space- m-a-l
Mr. We: Ok, we heard that befors, and we thought it was "grandma seizure".

At least he didn't ask what was a grand mal seizure.

[Mnemjian]

Mr. We: Ok, we heard that befors, and we thought it was "grandma seizure".

But when I was a little kid, I thought Grand Moff Tarkin was "Grandma Ftarkin" so I can't talk

But what is with him using "we" like that? Perhaps he is royalty.

[Lingering Grin]

As for the first one he could have been looking for the word ingenuous, and just didn't know how to pronounce it correctly.

Then again he could have been looking for a form of the word genuine, but in the context of the sentence he gave, genuine actually is the proper word to use



The second one... the guy has probably only heard the word spoken by people with either heavy accents, or just very relaxed speech.



On an unrelated note:

But when I was a little kid, I thought Grand Moff Tarkin was "Grandma Ftarkin" so I can't talk

Am I the only one who saw "Ftarkin" in that sentence and immediately thought "CTHULHU FHTAGN!" ?

[Broomjockey]

But when I was a little kid, I thought Grand Moff Tarkin was "Grandma Ftarkin" so I can't talk

I don't even have that much of an excuse. I watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Willow said "Piffle. Who needs a slayer anyways?"

What I heard was "Aw pifflehooneys." The rest of the sentence just got lost in my brain. I was very surprised when I got it on DVD and rewatched the episode.

[depechemodefan]

Mr. We calls on behalf of his friends/neighbors. I think those are the imaginary friends/neighbors. Also, one day I commented on his "we". He said, "well, it's me, myself and I. That's three people isn't it?" Unfortunately I think slow...it wasn't till several days I thought I should have told him "1x1x1 still equals 1".

[TOLady]

"pifflehooneys"

Love it! May I borrow it?

[Broomjockey]

Love it! May I borrow it?

Sure thing