Book Ends

Well, the annual FOL book sale is over.  Three grueling days of sitting on a cold folding chair counting out change is done.  “One pamphlet is all you could find? (with a chuckle)”   Yes, how much?  “That will be a whole fifty cents (always with a smile)”.  Fumble, fumble, fumble,  here.  “Okay, $.50 out of twenty”.  Stuff like that.  

A couple of money related observations.  I am not trying to indict anybody here, but it SEEMS to me, that females tend to keep their folding money in a non segregated wad.  Twenties mixed indiscriminately with tens, ones, and fives, usually all unevenly folded about five times  Just an observation.  Another money related story that was when an endearing older gentleman (when I say older, I mean even older than me) came up to the table with just a couple of little things that totaled a buck twenty five. He had on a well worn flannel plaid shirt, and one of those military ball caps from some squadron or ship that has a dome about a foot high with all sorts of script on it, you know what I mean.  Lovely guy.  Anyway, when informed of the price he dug in his pant pockets and came out with one of those shiny plastic oval change purses that you squeeze from the ends to open, and fished out the correct change.  It’s why I love the book sale (and St. Mary’s County).  I should do so well.

 Another nice thing about the sale is that I get to see a lot of my former colleagues from work than I’ve seen in a long time.  Indicative of the intelligence of my old buddies.  (and they weren’t the fifty cent stories).  

This year we had real food for the patrons, Friday we had the Lenny’s folks offering among other things Danny’s stuffed ham.  It happens to be just the way I like it (uh huh, u huh) a little tang without a lot of heat.  Good stuff.  

The other two days we had an honest to goodness food truck from the “I’se Da Bye’s” folks

I was told they were an outgrowth of the “hot dog guy” that used to hang out by the Brass Rail.  Usual stuff, hot dogs, burgers, fries and the like. 

The last day of the sale (Sunday) things go to half price in an effort to get rid of more stuff (read on).  It’s always kind of amusing to see what DOESN’T get picked up.  For instance I was glad to see this item headed for the recycle bins.

Not only is it the NEW B(word) Recipes, it is an all new edition.  I suppose to differentiate it from the OLD B recipes, or an old edition of the NEW B recipes.  Too bad it was from the Cook’s Illustrated folks, hopefully the ones who ousted Chris Kimball. By the way, I think the "Booty Food" tome also was pitched and in response to a reader inquiry, I didn't investigate if bacon grease spattering was involved.  Wish i would have nabbed it now..  Collector's items... Another thing we always have (besides an enormous "Chicken Soup for....." collection) is a TON of “….. for Dummies” books

And these are the left overs! they tend to sell like hot cakes.  There doesn’t seem to be any subject that is not covered for us Dummies

Of course there are band wagon jumpers, and apparently they forsook "Dummies"  for “.......For Idiots.  Notice the ones that percolated to the top was one for divorce and one for motorcycles.  Maybe related.

The "Booty" comment above reminded me of a cute story, told in the best taste I can. A thirty something couple came to my checkout table with a couple of piles of books to be priced.  They must have had stacks of maybe ten to twelve books each.  The books are priced by hard cover (regular books) and what have come to be called “trade paperbacks” large but with a non hard spine, like the “Dummies” books.  (two or one bucks) . So we have to go through each pile to total up the stack.   The stack in front of me was mostly hardbacks, but somewhere down in the middle was what looked like a Trade book.  In order to check, I lifted up the book above it a bit, and found it was indeed a Dummy Trade…. Sex for Dummies.   I would have done the same thing.   

At the end of the sale, volunteers appear and fill up “Gaylords” with the (hundreds of) unsold books.Yes, each year starts with zero books.  This one of three buildings all result from one year of donations..

                  

The Gaylords get trucked up to a Rotary club in Parole (and now Frederick) that gets them distributed to underprivileged schools and libraries, veterans homes, over seas, etc.  So while they leave us they have a continued good use.  Long live Books!

TS (not Eliot)

As alert readers know, one of my idols (well somebody I greatly respect) is Tom Sietsema who writes food for the Washington Post.  My usual Sunday morning routine is coffee and savoring (get it?) the restaurant reviews in the Magazine.  While on the surface it would seem a perfect job, I am not so sure I would not like to have to produce a review every week.   

Anyway, sometimes he alters his routine and covers some aspect of dining other than the food.  Last Sunday (4/24) he had a column called “Dining and the delicate art of communication”.  He leads off with: “not a month passes that a reader doesn’t complain to me about something a waiter says.  At the TOP (caps mine) of the list of rants is a question meant to see if a plate is ready to be cleared, often delivered by a server as “Are you still working on that?”  HAH!  Where have you heard that gripe before? thank you very much.  He (like the Feeder) would prefer a genteel query such as: “May I clear your plate?” provided everyone else at the table is finished eating”.  Hah! number two.  Another complaint was the praising of a diner by the server with a loud “Good Job!” for a clean plate.  Won’t go on, but good to see a professional palate getting bugged the same as this poor man’s one.

Just Right Opportunity

Will occur tomorrow someplace in the County … restaurateurs tremble!  Report will follow

DFD