Slashdot Mirror
George Washington Racks Up 220 Years of Late Fees At Library
Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie. What you probably didn't know is that he couldn't return a library book on time. From the article: "New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned. One of the books was the 'Law of Nations,' which deals with international relations. The other was a volume of debates from Britain's House of Commons. Both books were due on Nov. 2, 1789."
... in $1 bills.
When he goes to renew his Library card next time, bring a case against him and collect lots of those Washingtons
Where are the books now?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Looks like I have some competition.
That explains it! He wasn't saying
George Washington: I cannot tell a lie
He was, in fact, saying
George Washington: I cannot pay a fine
That explains so much!
Epoch fail.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
There will be an even bigger article on Slashdot 30.4001 Memorial Edition.
don't Bundy that book
Get Nick Cage on the case; those two books no doubt contain directions to the Illuminati's treasure stored in the hidden fortress of the Masons.
Is this what they mean by white guilt? Failure to return library books?
3...2...
Sweet URL that goes nowhere bro! I tried copying it in here but /. gave me a lameness error "Filter error: That's an awful long string of letters there.".
Do editors do ANYthing at this site anymore?
Try here instead:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8627835.stm
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
After "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", I'm pretty sure Quirk Books must already be working on a tale that involves Mr. Bookman (from Seinfeld, season 3) travelling back in time, terminator-style, to charge late fees on George Washington. That modifies the course of history. Last scene on the book, Bookman is back to the 20th century and the country formerly known as USA is now part of Canada. In the place of the Statue of Liberty, a huge green statue of Celine Dion greets the New Yorkers.
That guy 'll track down the money...Why don't they tell us the amount?
While experimenting with Toyota brakes NASA inadvertently opened a wormhole to the days of George Washington. After bringing him to present day America, handing him a fine for his late books he jumped back through the wormhole and promptly paid his two day late fee. With the magic of compound interest over the years the repayment of the fee solved the present day national debt crisis the was threatening to destroy the nation. Thanks George you saved us again!
He says he turned in them in on Nov 1st, 1789. Please send someone to check the shelves for the books.
The library went to a lot of trouble to prove that their records from the 18th century are probably a bit inaccurate. It could have been as simple as a star-struck librarian forgetting to update the register.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
an arrest warrant was issued for noted military leader, statesman, father of the nation, and library scofflaw George Washington.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I was related to Mary Coyle Chase (author of Harvey). After she died in 1981 I helped clear out some things from her house. We found a book which had been checked out of the Denver Public Library in 1929. It was really fun returning it. I asked how much the fine was. The person at the circulation desk called the head librarian, and after a good laugh, they said there wouldn't be a fine.
send bookman to get the book back!
I mean, think of how much revenue they must've lost!
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
He was often heard to ask total strangers whom he'd just met if he could borrow enough cash to purchase a hamburger and would promise to gladly pay them back on Tuesday.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Now we know why the US Federal Debt is so high. That fine is probably still being carried by the Office of the President.
is a fool's errand
let it go wherever it wants, for free, and profit off the ancillary revenue streams of such an attitude
the alternative approach assumes that you have more control than you can ever have, even theoretically
even our founding fathers were media "pirates"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The evidence that it was G. Washington is 'An aide simply scrawled "president" next to the title to show who had taken them out'. This seems pretty weak to me. How do we know this means the President of the U.S.? Maybe it was the president of the library, or someone else entirely. The entry was intended to make sense to the library staff, not random other people 200 years later.
He'd dead, Jim!
I bet he is just a slow reader like me.
I am sure he will return them when he's done.
Hey, I was only kidding. You don't have to MOD me "Troll" . . . again . . . .
Nah, $2 compounded at 5% for 221 years only gives $96,000 today (even a 10% yearly ROI would only net $2.8 billion). Can't blame the debt crisis on THAT George W.
Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie.
Good ol' Honest George.
'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
"[H]e couldn't return a library book on time" is an awfully broad stroke based on "two books he borrowed, but never returned." How many other books did he borrow and return on time? If you can't answer that, we have two books out of an unknown number, which could be 2/2 (100%) or 2/2000 (suggesting he actually could return things on time).
Is logic really that hard?
Additionally, he was probably busy doing Presidential things since this was the first year of his Presidency. And the ledger says "president", not "President", so how do we know which president it was? Look at the original Constitution - they loved capitalizing everything, and they went out of their way to lower-case this one. A circumstantial case if ever there was.
Slashdot: "News for nerds"
Fark: "It's not news, it's Fark.com"
So, how many History nerds are reading Slashdot instead of ThingsThatUsedToBeNews.com?
No, I didn't mean THAT kind of affair!! A President would never do that kind of thing would they?
To save space, the library used a VARCHAR(16) for the full name, so every time George returned something, there was an buffer overflow, and the database had to be fixed by hand. Seems like twice, they just forgot.
A tribute to the war of 1812: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ety2FEHQgwM
Admittedly a Canadian band, but close enough I guess. I actually served in the regiment that set fire to the white house during the war, not during the war of course. But interesting history. Never count the brits out of their ability to out speculate American news outlets. Something like "We could neither confirm nor deny allegations that Dick Cheney is an alien that feeds exclusively off of Chihuahua anuses" would be right at home on some of their tabloids.
We have an article on two books 220 years late, references to late fees, but no estimate on what George Washington would owe. Without that figure this is like a joke without the punchline.
I wished I had mod points. But at least, here it is.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
On similar lines Winston Churchill owed Rs 13 to club in India http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8418330.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
notice the dates. he probably forgot all kinds of due dates due to the speed things were proceeding in france. by his books' due date, everyone in the world was aware that what was happening was a revolution.
Read radical news here
for it is, and i have posted in this discussion.
Read radical news here
And what happened to privacy? What would Washington think about the library publishing what books he borrowed and how much he owes in fees?
Too shay.
George Washington was too shay, shay?
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
We found a book which had been checked out of the Denver Public Library in 1929. It was really fun returning it. I asked how much the fine was. The person at the circulation desk called the head librarian, and had a good laugh, a ferocious laugh, a cackle almost. Then the head librarian peered at me over her thick-rimmed glasses and grinned menacingly. She said, sternly, "Come with me." Then she lead me through the stacks, down a short stairway, and toward a dark, heavy door.
To continue following the librarian, turn to page 56.
To apologize and walk away, turn to page 129.
I once rented videos under the name of H. P. Lovecraft and never returned them.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the late writer of horror classics.
Sue his descendants for the late fees and pay off the national debt?
Good to see that even a founding father of the nation isn't immune from the loan sharks (aka librarians) of the library systems.
He's not dead, he's just pining for the fjords!
Similar to the upcoming US election results
I would be more than willing to bet that the descendants of the slaves that George Washington bought that are still alive today have a significantly higher standard of living than their counterparts who remained in Africa.
This is my sig.
When it takes 220 years for a government institution to figure out that a book is overdue, does anyone really think it would be a good idea to let them run a health care system?
I know its humorous because this is just a library book, but it serves as a striking example of how government bureaucracies can depart from the supposed intentions of their founders. Consider:
Ok, this is kind of a half-hearted jest, but I think there are some real points to be made about the way the government works more for the people in power than for the interests of the average citizen.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Compounded interest beyond teh value of the books.
Hmm, why does this make me think of the music and video industry regarding piracy lawsuits on one hand and the policies of redbox and block busters on the other hand where they charge you maximum of the cost of the video?
And yahoo shows and expired article....
Oh how redundant...
"Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie."
No, I don't. But then again, I didn't have "Pledging Allegiance to the Flag and Mythical Beings Never Proved to Exist" during my time in school, so I'm not really into unconditional :) .
love and awe for t3h pr3s1d3nt4y
But, seriously, George was a human being, and not a regular DC Comics character. I could've told you the same without the data present. I sometimes get the impression slashdot is turning
into a tabloid magazine. What's next? Photos of Brad friggin' Pitt's cooties?
I was wondering were the book are now also. This is very sad that our country would do this to our Great president.