Yes! The place is a rare gem.

Anyway, if you need an old clock repaired, Jim Ahmed at Clockworks in Richmond is your guy.

I think this is my first public endorsement of a brick-and-mortar establishment.

The guy is staggeringly good at his job and has a remarkable memory, remembering tiny minutiae about me from when I walked in a couple months ago to ask him some questions.

I just got the opportunity to watch him work, which was a sight to behold. Experts at their craft are such an inspiration.

Anyway, this happened in the move to Richmond.

The clock is dear to me, so I brought it to a clock repair person here. About 70 years old, amazing national reputation, Pakistani. His establishment is... cramped. Literally room for two people, and a thousand thousand clock parts.

Sigh.

Haven't seen that (but of course wouldn't be surprised). Is there news about that circulating?

Don't feel bad! That's a healthy relationship between researcher and library: the researcher needs access to something, the library acts as infrastructure to support that access. Much better than libraries paying for something that never gets used.

I am a very good information hound. If it exists, I can usually find it.

But sometimes I can't. And when that happens I just write a tiny bit of information in 5-6 form fields, and in a few days it appears in my hands. For free.

Libraries! What a concept. What a pinnacle of human achievement.

ugggh that is a good answer but also why do words have no meaning?? next thing you'll tell me is there is no such thing as pachyderms!

this is a good one. wirecutter sadly offered no good ones

(I've occasionally heard the argument that even rejections add "value" to the general "market." For example, research applications help scholars gather thoughts, and can be reused for articles. Which is true, but may not outweigh the sunk costs & resource rebalancing from poor to rich institutions.)