OnMilwaukee had a funny post today in which the author is reminded of some long overdue books from the Milwaukee Public Library.
“So, in the end,” he writes, “I unwittingly gave myself up, ending my life on the lam.” Too bad he didn’t have the cash with him to make good on the hefty fine.
Oddly reminiscent, the author notes, of the classic Seinfeld episode, “The Library” in which Jerry gets a visit from Mr. Bookman, the Sergeant-Joe-Fridayesque library cop from NYPL, over the matter of an unreturned book from 1971. Check it out on YouTube.
BOOKMAN: You took this book out in 1971.
JERRY: Yes, and I returned it in 1971.
BOOKMAN: Yeah, ’71. That was my first year on the job. Bad year for libraries. Bad year for America. Hippies burning library cards, Abby Hoffman telling everybody to steal books. I don’t judge a man by the length of his hair or the kind of music he listens to. Rock was never my bag. But you put on a pair of shoes when you walk into the New York Public Library, fella.
And then there is Kramer: “The Dewey Decimal System, what a scam that was. Boy that Dewey guy really cleaned up on that deal.”