From Bilked to Trusting Your Postman

A couple of weeks ago, I received a telephone reference question. Often when the questions do not deal with books we may or may not have in the library, they can be pretty unusual.

The question started off normal enough. The woman wanted to know what the orgin of bilk--as in to bilk someone out of money--was. Simple enough, I just did a quick dictionary search on the internet. Meanwhile, the woman tells me that her dictionary did not have an orgin for the word. I concur that this is indeed what I found. "Well, maybe that is why my friend didn't understand when I used the word." She continued with "I think it might be Scottish, my grandfather often used bilk." I held my tongue and did not tell her that maybe she should contact the boys down at Oxford English--they would probably be interested in her theory.

Scarcely before I could comment, she changed tacks with me and asked if I thought that if she used bilk in a legal letter if she would be understood. I explained that used in context it should be understandable. Then she blurted out "You should be able to trust your postman." It seems that she has come to the conclusion that her postman has indeed bilked her out of what might be a considerable amount of money. Considering that somehow he convinced her to write a personal check to pay his insurance. And then he had her take him to JC Penney and made her buy him clothes with her credit card.

Not sure how to respond, she said one more time "You should be able to trust your postman" before give me the book and number of a bible verse. "Excuse me ma'am?" She repeated the book and number and asked me what kind of picture I might see from the verse. I explained that I wasn't familiar with the verse. She then told me that her name was Mary Catherine but she wasn't Catholic. In her family there were a lot of Marys but none of them were Catholic. She liked to imagine painting pictures from bible verses.

I quickly understood how the postman--bad postman--was able to bilk her out of money. Fortunately, I got another phone call, wished Mary Catherine the best of luck and hung up. The great thing about working with the public is that you never know how a simple question will turn out.

I'm just sad that there are Mary Catherine's way too innocent for the likes of wolves in the disguise of your friendly neighborhood mail carrier. Or maybe the bilking postman was just a figment of Mary Catherine's imagination. Some days are more surreal that others.