\nyou made no bones about stealing a couple of library books and not paying your
\nfines. Gasp! That’s right, Pres. George Washington was just as big a fan of the library as Ask Umbra<\/a> (woot for reusing, Mr. Prez); however, according
\nto an old ledger book (and Boing
\nBoing<\/a>), Washington checked out two books from the New York
\nSociety Library in October 1789—one on international law and one a transcript
\nof debates in the British House of Commons—and never returned them. His
\ninflation-adjusted fines are now more than $100,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We’re not actively pursuing the overdue fines,”
\nsaid head librarian Mark Bartlett, “but we would be very happy if we were
\nable to get the books back.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That’s quite the different tune than Jerry Seinfeld got from
\nlibrary investigations officer Mr. Bookman for not returning Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in 1971:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Like what you see? Sign up to receive The Grist List, our email roundup of pun-usual green news<\/a> just like this, sent out every Friday.<\/p>\n Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ask Umbra on food dehydrators, cage-free and free-range poultry, and e-readers<\/a><\/p>\n Climate change denier Lord Monckton tries on a new conspiracy theory<\/a><\/p>\n From tobacco to climate change, ‘merchants of doubt’ undermined the science<\/a><\/p>\n