So, why were you at the doctor's? The boss paying you enough? How much do you weigh, anyway?

...Is your blood boiling yet?

I couldn't help stopping to read an article on CNN.com entitled "How to deal with nosy questions." The article gives tips on how to handle those personal, intrusive questions gracefully (assuming that you can remember the tips whilst recovering from the shock of being asked).

It turns out that the CNN article is originally from the magazine Real Simple, which we carry here in the library. You'll find the latest issue on display in the Stearns Room. It's also available in full text through the EBSCO database, going back to May of 2000. If you'd like to see the original version of the article, search on the title, "A Lesson Before Prying."

One of the great things about the EBSCO database is this: once you've located a helpful article, you can then use that article to find more on the same topic. While you are looking at your article, click "Citation" so that you can view the information about the source of the article. You should see the article title, author, and publication information. You should also see an area labeled "Subject Terms". It's followed by a list of subjects for the article. In this case, the subjects are ETIQUETTE, JOKING, NONVERBAL communication, BODY language, QUESTION (Logic), and PEOPLE. Each of the subjects is hyperlinked. To search for more articles with one of those subjects, simply click the link. For example, I could click on the ETIQUETTE link to get more etiquette articles.

For a more specific search, look to the right of the article title. You'll see a link that says "Find more like this." Click the link and EBSCO will run a search for other articles using the same combination of subjects--this is a much narrower search, since it looks for articles that match at least two of the subjects of the original article. In our example, it searched for articles that matched ETIQUETTE and JOKING plus at least one of the other subjects.

Oh, and to answer those questions? I'm just fine... My mother told me never to discuss money... and I weigh "enough."