What persistence and a pretty face can and cannot get you

My utility problems have continued. After a glorious few days of everything working, I lost all water except for an occasional trickle about a week ago. It appears as though the city has turned off the water. My daily calls to my landlord, who can verify if the city has turned off my water or if he has not paid the bill, are not working. He won't pick up the phone. Not a good sign.

On the plus side, I argued for about fifteen minutes with a librarian over my right to look at five years worth of newspaper articles (which you are supposed to request by quarterly volumes) and she called her boss, who assented on the condition that come to the back room and find them myself. Boss lady, an older woman, noticed that I was not Russian.

Seth: Yeah, I'm American.
Keeper of the Newspapers: Oh, I have a sister, well a cousin, in New York. (Russians often call a cousin a brother or sister without using the adjective that denotes cousindom) You're so young and handsome!
Seth: Aw, shucks!
Keeper of the Newspapers: I have another sist--, cousin who is unmarried, and has no children.
Seth [rolling eyes shamelessly with mouth agape]: Yes...
Keeper of the Newspapers: You come on Tuesday to look through more newspapers, I'll bring a picture. Okay!

This is sort of a dilemma, because finding the newspapers myself was much faster than requesting them a quarter at a time but I tend to be anti-granny-matchmaking. Can I sell my heart for more convenient access to Pravda? I think I'll wait until I see the photograph.