Go Ahead, Ask Him About Any Celebrity’s Ankles — He Knows Them All

Allowing the Times to interview the guy who cleans coins out of all the fountains on the premises must seemed like a good idea at the time to to the Met’s press department:

In the hour before the museum opened the other day, [Metropolitan Museum of Art employee David Mendez] filled about a third of a large white bucket. As he worked he talked about everything from the 40th president (a hero of Mr. Mendez’s whom he calls “Mr. Reagan”) to the museum’s director, Philippe de Montebello (“I love the way he talks. He just knows how to say whatever he’s saying.”).

He talked about V.I.P.’s who have visited the Met in the 19 years he has worked there, including Queen Sofía of Spain.

“Mrs. Juan Carlos,” he called her, referring to the king. “She had super-thick ankles. He was so tall and handsome, and she was so petite. I guess it was an arranged marriage. You know how those things are.”

Other quirky (museum) jobs that are probably just quirky jobs include.