About 2/3 of the way through my 2nd grade year, my family moved two hours to the north. I found myself in a different state in a century-old school building. But curiously, my new county had the same name as my old county…am I allowed to say “Middlesex” on the Internet?
Old School
The first story I remember reading in my new class was “Old Lucy Lindy” a tale about a woman who baked pies.
Ms. Lindy had a recurring problem in that once a pie was baked, neither she, nor her customers, knew what kind of pie it was.
Her solution was to etch short-hand descriptors in the pie crusts before they went in the oven:
1. For mince pies she wrote, I.M. for “Is Mince” and
2. For other pies she wrote, I.M. for “Isn’t Mince”
And hilarious antics ensued (probably they ensued, I don’t remember details).
Eventually, I worked in publishing, advertising and eventually content management. Ms. Lindy’s metadata strategy, as dubious as it was, is eclipsed some of the ones I’ve seen in real life.
What is your earliest memory of bad metadata?
(The story “Old Lucy Lindy” was written by Bill Martin, Jr. who later authored several children’s books such as “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” and “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” (as well as a few other bear-centric, sensory books)
