Today's Word - Impasse

Impasse (im'pas im pas') n. 1. a position or situation from which there is no escape; deadlock 2. a road or way that has no outlet; cul-de-sac [1850-1855; < F, equiv. to im- + -passe, s. of passer to PASS] --Syn. 1. stalemate, standstill, standoff, dead end.

Ah, the impasse. The nemesis of all who work in libraries, and a favorite pastime of those who manage to slip through the loopholes in natural selection. (And we all know how many of THOSE there are... Unfortunately, the weakest aren't always culled from the herd.) Sample telephone call from yesterday: Customer: "Hello, I am looking for a book about (insert random contemporary artist here)

Stack Ferret: "Sure, let me just check our catalog to see what we have... It doesn't appear that we have anything about him here, let me just check to see what's available elsewhere." (Check Amazon and Google) "I'm sorry, there doesn't seem to be a reference to a book about him anywhere. Do you know for certain that there is a book about him?"

Customer: Well, he has over 160 paintings on his website!

Stack Ferret: (banging head on desk, and thinking to self) "Yes, but can he WRITE? Maybe he should have stopped painting long enough to JOT A FEW THINGS DOWN, perhaps in BOOK FORM. Having a website of your art doesn't make you an artist. There are monkeys who paint, and they have websites too. Are all his paintings of CATS? Or his TOES? Perhaps he doesn't warrant a book. Maybe those trees should be allowed to LIVE.

Enter the IMPASSE. The odds of finding a book that doesn't exist, as we all know, are quite slim.


So I suggested that he contact the artist through the website to inquire if there is actually a book available. Maybe it's a non-existant book. Perhaps it's a non-existant book about a non-existant painting. That crosses into philosophy, which is on the ground floor, and not even my problem.

I was in an ancient cathedral once, and the stone steps were worn in the middle from hundreds of years of feet going over them. The spot on my desk where I bang my head is starting to look much the same.