Dewey Teaser: It's deep

We're taking a break today from our blanket coverage of the shenanigans in San Antonio, simply to bring you the news that, yes, Laura was right -- the conversation we related in last week's Dewey Teaser did indeed occur in the show Surface (NBC), "an expansive drama series that centers on the appearance of mysterious sea creatures in the deep ocean." What might have thrown people off the scent was the "clue" that we provided, since Surface is of course currently broadcast in the US on Monday, not Tuesday nights as we accidentally on purpose informed you. The supposed connection to Tuesdays, and the appearance in our transcript of characters called "R" and "L," is what probably led a number of readers to suggest Gilmore Girls. But Surface is all about Rich and Laura, not Rory and Lorelai, and the episode in question went out on Monday, January 9, at 8pm. The New Dewey Teaser begins next week -- bet you can't wait! -- and in the meantime we're going to hand things over to Tish Reigle for her expert summary of that special scene. It's exclusive to the Dewey blog, and won't be on the DVD. Take it away, Tish!

Laura is a (very annoying) biologist who saw the sea creatures while doing a research dive off the California coast. Rich is a regular guy whose brother was "killed" by the sea creatures during a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico. He eventually hooks up with Dr. Laura as they both try to tell world about this new animal. However, some "government agency" is trying to keep the existence of these animals secret and is willing to kill to do so. So Laura and Rich are always running and hiding while trying to gain more evidence of the creature. They finally hook up with a news station and show the tape of the sea creature (although it is treated as another "Nessie" story). Success! But they are still being chased by agents of this secret organization. Hiding out at a friend's house, Laura is retrieving her emails when she comes across one from somebody who truly seems to know something about the sea creature. The mystery emailer wishes to meet Laura and check some of her evidence. Laura and Rich are wary but the other person offers to give them a token of good faith. Emailer: "100 Leary Street. The code is 576 dot 80162 ..." Laura: "The code for what?" Emailer: "... AR." Later we see Laura and Rich running up the steps of a public building -- a library. Rich: "Wait a minute, we're being given the gift of literacy?" Laura: "Explains the code." Rich: "What's that?" Laura: "Dewey decimal system." Inside, Laura and Rich scan the books until they find 576.80162. It's the Origin of the Species. Behind the book is an envelope with false IDs, credit cards, money. 576.8 is the number for evolution but I would place Origin of the Species in 576.82, natural selection. Where the 0162 comes from, I don't know. Why the book is cuttered AR and not DAR or OR is also puzzling ... My daughter patiently stopped, rewound, played, close captioned this section several times and the number definitely seems to be 576.80162 AR. Surface is a sci-fi show. Not the greatest and definitely has holes in the plotline that a fleet of trucks can drive through. But I like the storyline of a boy and his sea creature.

Comments

[Dodie Gaudet]

The title of Darwin's book is _On the origin of species ..._

The bib record I located in my online network is for the 1963 Heritage Press edition. Interestingly, the Dewey # provided by LC is 575.0162 (not 576) so 0162 likely comes from an earlier (ca. 1963?) edition of the Dewey schedules.

[Giles Martin]

The given number 576.80162 is not a valid number in any edition of Dewey. However, 575.0162 (the number Dodie Gaudet found) was used up to Edition 20 (published 1989) for Darwinian theories of evolution. In Edition 21 (published 1996) that topic was moved to 576.82. So the number 576.80162 seems to be a smushing together of the old and new numbers for Darwinism: it's conceivable that it's been used in a real library, but it's a local variation of Dewey, or an error.