While never a Librarian myself, it was my absolute joy to supervise 32 Library Media Specialists. Among them were just two African-American women. One of the dear ladies took gravely ill and it fell to me to notify the other 31 of her passing. The call had come into my office and I called each of them with the sad news. Shortly after that, a second call came in of the Oops variety. She was still quite alive. While she did die within a day or two, I was devastated by my prematurate pronouncement to staff. The second LMS had a more amusing tale attached to her. Lorraine, now also passed, was a very elegant woman. Always dressed to the nines, she was what White folks like to refer to as “articulate” … i.e., she was fluent in white English and never heard to utter dialect or to mispronounce any word. Of a day, she said, “Kathleen, you must speak to my principal. She gets on the intercom and says, “Grade Five, report to the liberry. The Liberian is waiting for you.” Once I stopped laughing, I told that dear soul that once a person gets into the 50s that it is near impossible to change bizarre pronunciations. While that was winging it, I knew that my half black, white-looking self was not going to wander down that highway. However, being the tasteless juvenile that so endears me to teenage boys, I had me a new name for the LMS division. From that day forward, regardless of ethnicity, they were MY LIBERIANS!!! They were always kind enough to humour me.