The Art of Name Dropping

Librarians are skilled in the art of name dropping. I went to a conference the other week with librarians from several states. Whenever I was in a group of several librarians I found that one or more of them loved to insert as many names in the conversation as they could. Some examples of this are:

"I heard ______ before, she's (insert descriptor such as 'great' or 'wonderful')."
"I met ________ at (esteemed place you were probably not at) they were (exclamatory phrase.)
"I read ______ before; I think (insert opinion you didn't ask for.)"
"I know _______ we go way back." (Actually the two are minor acquaintances.)

It seems librarians think the more people they know (even if tenuously) the more impressive they are. I'm sure this is not unique to librarians. In the vast network of librarianship where it is often "who you know" rather than "what you know" the need to drop as many names in as possible seems dire for some individuals. But it seems they will mention anybody even if they just shook the other person's hand just to sound a little more important. I just wish they could stand back and listen to themselves and hear how annoying they were sometimes.