Oh my, Part today

So today I went to the big Hastings store, spent some time looking, and then was asked by a managerial type if she could help me.

"I hope so," I said.

She looked totally (as everyone says, as in totally) confident until I said I was looking for a CD of The Messiah.

Blank look.

Then she recovered and sent me to the information desk over in the CD/DVD section of the store.

A young man asked to help me, assuring me he knew everything there was to know about this section of the store.

"I'm looking for The Messiah."

"Isn't everyone," he said.

This was encouraging to me, but as he typed stuff into his computer for about five minutes and came up with nothing, I became worried. I said, "You do know what I'm talking about. Right?"

"I assume you're talking about the movie."

"No," I said quite patiently, "it's music, an oratorio, written in the 1700s. Now do you know what I'm talking about?"

"I don't even know what an oratorial is."

I explained quite patiently. "Oratorio. It's sacred music for orchestra, chorus, and solo voices. This one is about the birth (I left it at the birth) of Jesus, written by Handel."

"Oh, Handel."

"So you've heard of Handel's Messiah."

"No."

"Oh."

"But now I can look under Handel.

"I see. Well at least you didn't ask me if The Messiah was the name of an artist."

He said, "I was about to until you said Handel."


I do not make these things up. And, while they're all mildly amusing, they are also very troubling.