Good deed - I toot my own horn.

For the final class gift, people had thought about getting the priest a DVD set of the Ken Burns series "The Civil War", but because he had no DVD player, they'd have to get one too.

I sent out a gentle email, then, suggesting maybe get him some Latin books he doesn't have, and that he had said he was missing a library, to which one guy who's from Wisconsin suggested getting him a "friends of the university library" card so he could check stuff out, or maybe even a higher level of membership so he get inter-library loans, but the class was closing fast and there was a lot of questions that we'd have to ask the priest to make sure that he'd use the membership, so some guy got a $130 bottle of liquor from the Grand Chartreuse and asked everyone to chip in (I didn't).

But, at the last day of class, at one of the priest's friends lake houses where we went to read Horace and then enjoy the beach, I found myself alone with him, so I cornered him and asked him if he would use a membership like the one guy from Wisconsin had mentioned.

He asked me what it was and I gave him a few details, and he said he'd have to research it more, never mind (! - he doesn't have internet access, how would he do that), and at that point the hostess asked me if I needed a computer, and brought out her laptop.

So, right then and there I looked up how much it would cost, and then asked him what books he wished he had so we could see if the university library had them - and, as it turns out, they not only had Aulus Gellius's "Attic Nights", but that was part of a 19th c. reprint of a 118vol. series of Latin texts that he loves, and all 118vol. were available for checkout, in addition to other common series of Latin texts.

"You could spend a whole lifetime just with that," he was like, and said he wouldn't even need interlibrary-loan privileges.

(The priest doesn't really care about critical editions etc. like scholars do, he just loves to read the Latin.)

"And you're doing that all off of that thing?", he was like.

Then, I got the reference desk number, and called up about handicap access to the stacks and photocopiers - he had free transport there or wherever he wants in the county, and he said the trip wouldn't be too long for him - and since that stuff was indeed handicap accessible, I told him that, and then he again brushed off the membership, saying he'd have to look into more.

So, I found the online order form, told him that he couldn't do this easily himself, but I could sign him up and he could get the library card in the mail and then go up there at his leisure, and then asked him for his full name address phone etc., and put that down.

"Yes," he was like, "But I want to pay for it."

And then, he added, "And you can do that all on that thing?"

Anyhow, I told him that I was going to slide him some money from the class (he takes anonymous donations), so not to pay me back, I'd just lessen my donation by the membership amount.

Then, he added that it would be nice to have the membership benefits etc. in a hard copy, so the day after I got back, I printed that and library hours and the reference desk # out, and mailed it to him, as well as a reminder to start up an email account for library purposes (the online form required one and he doesn't have one, so I just put my email address in).