Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Clark Kent is Superman

I never bought the whole no one knew Clark Kent was Superman idea. Seriously, how naive are people that a pair of glasses threw off recognizing the guy. I can safely affirm that yes, a pair of glasses can alter an appearance significantly enough to make someone unrecognizable. Depending on how bad my allergies are, I have been switching off between wearing contacts and my glasses this past year and have run into the glasses as a disguise phenom.

Recently I helped a customer with a rather complicated question, where she found over 20 pages of documentation. I mean a seriously big find in genealogy research. She was really excited. The next day she came back to the desk to ask for help on something else and as I worked with her, I asked if we were still focusing on ancestors in Tennessee. She asked how I knew she was looking in Tennessee. I pointed out that I was the person who had helped her the night before. She told me I looked different. I was wearing my glasses.

When we ran into Mark and Peggy in NYC, Mark asked Peggy to introduce us since he hadn't met me before. I pointed out that we worked together for almost 6 years. I was wearing contacts. (Michelle pointed out that it's been 2 years and my hair is shorter and darker also)

Another instance involved another customer asking me why I was wearing someone else's name badge, which has my photo. I assured her it was mine. She said I looked nothing like the photo and that the person could be my mother in the photo. I once again stated it was my photo, just with glasses.

So apparently the Clark Kent disguise is a valid one that we need to remember to use if we want to go incognito.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

And skinny! don't forget that you are super-skinny now too!
Mich

Delia said...

You don't know what a disguise is until you, as a woman, have been mistaken for your bearded, male colleague. Of course, most of the time, we don't really see the outside of people, just the inside's reflection.

Sarai said...

LOL to Delia! :)

I had no idea the eyeglasses were so effective. People seem to recognize me when I wear my glasses, which I find distressing because I usually only wear them to work if I am feeling like crap, which also means I have not put on any makeup or made any effort with my hair!