OK, so you couldn’t tell a lie, Georgie boy, but apparently you made no bones about stealing a couple of library books and not paying your fines. Gasp! That’s right, Pres. George Washington was just as big a fan of the library as Ask Umbra (woot for reusing, Mr. Prez); however, according to an old ledger book (and Boing Boing), Washington checked out two books from the New York Society Library in October 1789—one on international law and one a transcript of debates in the British House of Commons—and never returned them. His inflation-adjusted fines are now more than $100,000.

“We’re not actively pursuing the overdue fines,” said head librarian Mark Bartlett, “but we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back.”

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That’s quite the different tune than Jerry Seinfeld got from library investigations officer Mr. Bookman for not returning Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in 1971:

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