When I am driving I often see people on the side of the road, using some sort of laser-like device. What are they doing? I think they are called surveyors, but that could be totally wrong. AP, I am scared, are they setting up speed traps (or worse)?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: It’s probably worse than speed traps. They’re surveying to widen the highway, resulting in the destruction of trees and historic buildings. The laser device you see is probably a transit. The surveyors point it at a stadia rod or level rod (like a big ruler) to measure heights, angles, and distances from a known point. In the olden days (e.g., 20 yrs ago) the transit was like a telescope, with little crosshairs in it, and you could tell the distance by the magnification of units on the stadia rod. There are a variety of surveying instruments that are sort of like what I describe here (telescope-like, laser-like, measuring rods, etc.). GPS receivers can help with distance nowadays, too.

Is living with your significant other before marriage a good idea?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP prefers to be libertarian about these things and not be a moral arbiter or second guess what living arrangements work best for people. It’s up to the two of you. If you want to test the waters before (or in place of) the further commitment of marriage, that’s OK. If you believe that living together already represents a permanent commitment, then you need to weigh the decision the same as you would marriage. If your moral system gives one or both of you doubts about whether this is the right thing, then it’s a bad idea.

What is an “Army Regulation”? I am writing a paper using “Army Regulation 190-8”, and I was wondering if this was equivalent to Federal Law or if it was more like a recommendation?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Administrative regulations of federal executive branch agencies (of which the Army is one) are legally binding rules, not just recommendations. Interpretation of a specific law or regulation, however, might be open to debate and judicial review, just as statutes (laws formulated by the legislative branch) are open to interpretation and judicial review. You should talk to one of the librarians at the Law School Library or to a law professor with expertise in regulatory or military law.

Hey AP,

Are there any other university libraries that have people like you? Do you know if you have any internet competitors out there, and if any of them are any good?

You’re the best, I’m sure!

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Thanks for the compliments! Sure, there are many Answer Persons at university libraries. We hold annual conventions (in a secret location, of course) where we attend programs with guest speakers such as Ann Landers and discuss issues such as how best to secure the Answer Book pen to prevent its theft.

But seriously, although many libraries have suggestion boxes where you insert your comment on a secretive little folded slip of paper, I don’t know of any other place where they’ve institutionalized the comments and answers in such a public manner. On the web, there seem to be several library-based “Answer Man” services (even though a majority of people working in libraries are women!). These seem to be for the purpose of asking legitimate reference questions, but this AP urges you to take such questions to a legitimate Reference department at one of the Duke libraries. I’ll listen to your gripes about the Perkins restrooms.

What is the proper way to cite a court petition (or other court documents) in an MLA format bibliograpy?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Well, it’s probably too late for your paper now. I hope an important legal case wasn’t hanging in the balance. For such a reference question in the future, you might want to contact the Perkins Reference desk (where they have the *MLA Handbook*) or else the reference desk over at the Law Library.

The MLA Handbook seems to deal only with published legal materials (court decisions, statutes, etc.), and even then for the details refers to *The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation* by the Harvard Law Review Assn. There’s a copy behind the Perkins Reference desk at 348.7347 U58x, and probably a newer edition over at Law. (Incidentally, the MLA Handbook incorrectly cites this as *The Blue Book* — it’s actually one word!)

At a glance, however, AP didn’t see guidelines for unpublished court documents in *The Bluebook*. Since AP doesn’t purport to be a lawyer, I recommend that you contact the fine folks over at the law library, who can lend you their expertise in these matters. I’m guessing that since this isn’t handled by MLA, you will have to fudge it to look like you think MLA should look like.

Is there a web site that lists the most popular web sites? Or if I wanted to know how many hits a specific web site gets, can I find out for free somehow?

Cheers!

PS
What is your favorite website, AP?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: There’s a listing of the top English language sites at alexa.com: http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 This lists top-level addresses, so, for instance, ESPN is is under www.go.com (way down at #11). You can click on the “Site info” link, then “See Traffic Details” to get a rough idea of number of hits. You can use the comparison feature with any other top-level website (e.g., www.duke.edu), then show the traffic level for that website. You probably can’t trust those “number of visitors” counters that some sites have. My favorite counter is at http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/

My favorite website? It sounds like you’re trying to figure out something about my personal tastes to divulge my secret identity, right? A pretty good one is http://library.duke.edu/

I have a friend who likes UNC basketball. How do I gently convince her of her fault and encourage her to become a Duke fan?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: That’s like trying to convert someone to a different religion. It’s very difficult. (It doesn’t help your project that our mascot is a Devil!) If you’re good to her and introduce her to other good Duke fans and don’t directly criticize UNC (that would be like attacking her current religion), then you have a chance. The subtle approach. And, if she just sees enough Duke games, she should see the light.

What is the coolest thing to do in New York City?

And what is your favourite New York moment?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Avoid the tourist stuff, like Broadway or hip clubs. The best times can be had by soaking up the ambiance, say, in ethnic neighborhoods in outlying boroughs. Try taking the Staten Island Ferry. Watch the other ships go by. Enjoy the subway, especially when it goes over the junctions and the lights flicker off and on and it makes a lot of clickity clack noises. Very sensuous. AP isn’t much of a world traveller (I’m stuck answering these questions), but a good New York moment (I guess you’d call it that) was when I walked into the the 6th floor walkup I was staying in for the weekend (a friend of a friend sort of thing) and saw the bathtub in the middle of the room (living room / dining room / kitchen).