10 | FEBRUARY 18 - 24, 2022 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
CITY VOICES LANDGREN REMOTE CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS GETTING OUT OF HAND?
FIRST PERSON
Homelessness issue on display at the library Mary Reynolds Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
BAD ADVICE
Creepy boss is her dad’s friend Shaun Connolly Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
DEAR SHAUN: My boss has been hitting on me at work, and making inappropriate comments about my body. Ordinarily, I would just report him to HR, but he’s a longtime friend of the family and he gave me the job as a favor to my dad. What should I do? – No Good Options Dear Options: Your dad is friends with this guy? I suggest you write in for some advice on how to get your dad new friends, because that is clearly something that needs to be done. I will stick to the task at hand. Don’t hit on him per se. But defi nitely talk about his weird body. If he is a friend of your dad’s then he is an older
gentleman and unless he’s George Clooney, well I’m assuming he hasn’t aged the best. Say things like, “huh, I never noticed how your eyes recede like they are sinking in sand.” Or, “did you always have that much skin?” Or maybe, “thinning hair is really cute, it’s the equivalent of your scalp wanting to show a little leg.” Or even try, “can I see your hands, I want to see if I can fi nd your adorable little liver spots.” This will most likely get you fi red. But then you can ask your dad if he has any non-creepy friends that are hiring! DEAR SHAUN: I am unable to read. Dear Illiterate: Okay, this is fun because you won’t be able to read my response. I actually See ADVICE, Page 11
If you’ve ever taken the time to read it, you will see that the fi rst line of the Worcester Public Library mission statement is to “serve as a gathering place that promotes the free exchange of ideas in our democratic society.” (Bear in mind for later reading that “mission” can also be defi ned as the vocation or calling of an organization.) If you have visited the WPL any time in the last 20 years, you have obviously noted a dramatic increase in the number of homeless and otherwise needy people socializing outside the rear entrance. For many years, they were innocuous and even friendly. However, in the last few years, many of them have become shockingly aggressive and even follow you to your car seeking cash or cigarettes. Alas, do not complain or make a comment to a library staff member! They will vigorously defend their civil right to be there, that they “serve as a gathering place.” Amazing what a few words taken out of context produces. And to be fair to the staff , I’m not sure what they can do, anyway. However, loitering individuals are problem that started years ago, actually in the ‘60s, with a diff erent population — a group we called the library perverts. I was blessed to work at the WPL from my freshman year in high school until my
The main branch of the Worcester Public Library. FILE PHOTO
senior year in college. And I do mean blessed — my mother had instilled in us a love of reading from a very early age — taking us to the Quinsigamond Branch of the Library once a week and letting us get an extra book if we had been “good” that week. (How clever was she ??) So this was a great job for me — I would hurry and fi nish my work and then sneak into the stacks and read a book. And trust me, I was not the only page doing this! Unfortunately, danger lurked. Many of us were Catholic High School girls who came directly to work from school, so we were clad in our uniforms, specifi cally, skirts. Often while we stood on stools to reshelf books, a “pervert” in the next aisle would push a mirror through the bottom shelf on his side and look up our skirts. While this was quite
unnerving to us, I devised a simple solution that many of us adopted — simply shove a large group of books from the top shelf into that aisle, hopefully landing most of them squarely on his head. Thus the second great use of books at the WPL! Unfortunately, the problem got so out of control that the library fi nally hired the services of a Worcester policeman, the wonderful Offi cer Guittar. (Obviously in plain clothes). He was kind and effi cient, and within months he had cleared out most of the “perverts.” After I graduated from college, years passed before I visited the library again, but when my brother Paul began volunteering in the library book store, I would stop in now and then to visit him and make a purchase. I was aghast at See LIBRARY, Page 11
