The smell of the library
In It’s A Wonderful Life, Clarence the angel shows George Bailey how badly the lives of his friends and family would have turned out if indeed he had never been born: Mr. Gower the phramacist is an alcoholic ex-con, Violet Bick is getting arrested in some kind of night club altercation, Mrs. Bailey has been forced to open a boarding house, Uncle Billy is in an asylum, his brother Harry drowned as a child.
But Clarence saves the worst for last.
“What happened to Mary?!” George asks.
“You’re not going to like it George, ” Clarence answers.
“Where is she!?” George cries, shaking Clarence by the lapels.
“She’s about to close up the library!”
At the annual Brattle screening, this never fails to send the bookish Cantabridgian audience into twitters. Oh, no, not the library!
Well, for all you bookish Cantabridgians and bookish Cantabridgian wannabes, and for all you librarians and librarian wannabes, there is now a perfume just for you.
(I know, that was a big lead-up for just a link!)
February 21st, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Intriguing! I am tempted to pick up a 2 oz. bottle, plus several of the other I Hate Perfume scents. Not patchouli, though. Never patchouli.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I’m having an aural flashback to our college library. The librarian’s perfume permeated the place. It was actually a rather lovely, clean smell. I’ve always wanted to know what she used but was too embarrassed to ask.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I meant olfactory flashback, of course.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Editrix: You were one of the librarian wannbes I was thinking about. (I mean that in a nice way, like you are a librarian fellow traveller, not like you are a big fake).
Marco: I think you mean olfactory but I know what you mean. Larry Frye wore perfume?
February 21st, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Dangit, Marco, you beat me to correcting you.
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I hang around books and such so much, I should sell my own fragrance and call it BookGIRL. Or maybe wordGIRL.
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I knew this reminded me of something. There’s a line of fragrances based on the novel Perfume and released to coincide with the film. A review and description of the scents can be found here.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Or BoggleGRRL, since you are the high priestess of word recombination and I am in awe of you!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:32 am
Where do you find this stuff???
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
This was mentioned on the Rag & Bone blog. Rag & Bone are an excellent bindery in Providence that use a lot of handmade papers and such. I think our wedding guest book was a Rag & Bone product.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:24 pm
It also reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer tries to sell Calvin Klein on a scent that is the smell of “The Beach”.
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Complete your ensemble with a stylish book bag, which may be the most raddest thing ever.
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Uhrrr, it would appear that I didn’t close the tag or something.
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Trixie, your link’s busted; I can’t get to the raddest book bag ever…
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 pm
It is here. See how careless I get when 50 people send me angry emails in one day?