Luke's working at the bookstore when some old professorial type starts giving him grief about the fact that the books are alphabetized. Alert the authorities! The old guy is a total HITG!, and yet neither of us can place him, and it's driving us so crazy we can hardly concentrate on the scene. I sort of freak when I finally realize it's Giles from Oz. Creepy. Except I find Austin Pendleton kind of charming, so it's hard to stay creeped out. It's the science section, and his beef is that it should be organized by topic, not author. Okay, I feel you there. He laments the lack of systems and categories. Luke mutters that he's just filling in for his sister. I actually got sort of excited early in this scene, thinking that this guy seemed very much like an avatar and that maybe we were finally going to see God talking to someone besides Joan. Wouldn't that be wild? Pendleton would have been an awesome avatar. Professor Giles follows Luke around, complaining that young people today don't care about much other than Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up. Luke: "They did?" Professor Giles nods sadly: "Yeah." Then he says, "You should not be allowed near books. You know nothing about science." Oh, please. Is some customer really going to come into the store and act like this? I'm not supposed to be offended by what a transparent setup this is? He starts to walk out, but Luke decides to stand up for himself: "Hey! Hey! You are patronizing the wrong geek, Grandpa. You want to talk quarks? Huh? Neutrinos? String theory? Bring it on, Pops." Whoa, whoa, boys. Take it outside. No intellectual fisticuffs in the store. Professor Giles smiles: "Then you should have the good sense to arrange these books properly by content. Content is what matters." He tosses a book on top of the shelf in front of Luke and leaves. Luke picks up the book, looks at the cover, and then flips it over. The back features a picture a much younger picture of the guy he was just talking to, looking very adorable in that 1960s scientist kind of way. What? Dude, check out Richard P. Feynman. If you don't see the hotness, check out your ophthalmologist. Feyn Man, indeed. Anyway. I think the book is called Positing the String Theory. Luke stands there looking puzzled, wondering if, when he gets to be a published author, he'll be haunting bookstores, visiting his books and trying to make sure they're properly shelved and featured. Not that book authors ever do stuff like that.













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