"I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers, consultin' with the rain..." sang the Scarecrow in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, considering all the options that would be open to him, if he "only had a brain." No matter how brainy a consultant might be, nobody really knew this past week just where and how hard the hurricane would hit us. On the heels of an earthquake a few days ago that rocked Virginia and many other points up and down the eastern seaboard, how you were affected was basically a crapshoot. Some people in my building felt the earth move under their feet and witnessed the unnerving sight of furniture, shelving, books, etc. bouncing about, and like a wobbly Ray Bolger, weren't quite sure which way to go at first; others didn't notice a thing. Same with the storm. A few of our coworkers are still at home dealing with flooded basements, a lack of electricity, and other distressing developments, while others remained high and dry. If only there were someone possessing the power of a wizard with whom we could consult on matters like this. After consulting with OhioLINK and WorldCat, we found two examples of Consultin and 22 of Consulan* in OhioLINK (along with 20 and 212 in WorldCat).
(An illustration by W. W. Denslow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, published in 1900, from Wikimedia Commons.)
Carol Reid
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