Midwest Chick's Place

So I go to the bookstore today for a quick look around as well as to find a copy of Handel’s Messiah since various parts of it have been running through my brain for the last several days.  I go to the music section and ask the perky girl wandering about if they have Handel’s Messiah perhaps in their holiday section or maybe religious section since it was not in classical?  I get a blank stare followed by a “I don’t know what that is.”  I blink.  I stare back.  I respond “Are you frickin’ kidding me?  You really have not heard of Handel’s Messiah?”  I get a deer-in-the-headlights look with a somewhat frightened nod.   Perhaps it was my look of total disgust mingled with incomprehension that someone had really not heard of this piece and is working in the MUSIC section of a bookstore.  Maybe she was just helping out and her specialty is children’s books or something.

I patiently explain.  “Handel is the composer.  The Messiah is the piece of work that he composed.  It’s one of the arguably most famous classical works EVER.  It’s a Christmas work.  There are flash mobs singing bits of it at malls.  Maybe you’ve seen it on youtube??”  No dice and no glimmer of recognition, just a shiny smile and a “the computer can look it up for you.  It’s over that way.”  And off she skipped leaving me knocking my head against the nearest shelving unit.