I started my day having breakfast with an old college friend (of course, all college friends are old) in Shirlington, which is 20 minutes from his house and 22 from my house. This means that if you travel from his to mine via Shirlington, the trip would take you about 42 minutes or (to put in another way) you are better off using your GPS.

We ate a Busboys and Poets (named for Langston Hughes, who earned a living for a while as a busboy at the Sheraton Hotel in Washington, and Zora Neale Hurston, who didn’t and is therefore known only as a poet. As I understand it, owner Andy Shallal was trying to bring them back together after they quarreled and broke up a long and close friendship.) I was looking forward to a bowl of oatmeal and some coffee, and was shocked and gobsmacked (I have been using so many first time words recently; bet you haven’t noticed) to discover that they had no oatmeal on the menu and I was stuck with getting an egg dish, buttermilk pancakes or corn beef (you can substitute tofu if you dare) hash. I chose a Western omelet without the ham (which I dubbed a Midwestern omelet, much to the confusion of the European born waitress who may never have heard of the Midwest). My side was grits. I ate the grits (with a little butter), and about two bites of the omelet. I paid a pretty price.

My friend is a reader of this blog and he complemented me effusively before saying to me “Do you want to know what I really think?”. Of course, I said “of course”, and he told me four things. First, that sometimes they were too long. Second, that I should only talk about one thing at a time. Third, that no one is interested in the plots of books they won’t read and films they won’t see. And fourth, I need a proofreader. I both agree with and disagree with all of these points, and I will take them under advisement.

I am not going to discuss his comments here, but will say the following. First, this post is probably too long, but the best may come at the end. Second, that I will try to start only discussing one thing at a time…..tomorrow. Third, that I was going to write about a book no one was going to ever read today, but in deference to my friend, I will put that off until tomorrow as well. And fourth, my wife wants to be my proofreader, but I push that “publish” button fast, and no one has been able to catch me yet.

Okay, enough of that, and on to something else. I want to talk about a book I will never read, Donald Trump’s (really Tony Schwartz’s) The Art of the Deal. After breakfast, since I had a free Juneteenth today with no responsibilities, I decided to drive on to Manassas VA for my semiannual trip to McKay’s Used Books, which is a terrific book store, IMHO. As in most book stores, each book is marked separately, but at McKay’s they seem to be priced with no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

I went to the biography/memoir section, as I usually do, and started with the Z’s, working backwards through the alphabet. When I got to the T’s, I saw a copy of The Art of the Deal. Now, I generally only buy books that have been signed by the author, and what chance would there be that this pristine copy of this ridiculous book was signed by Donald Trump? And besides that, this was a pristine copy of a book that was written in, when, the 1980s?

It turns out that the Trump campaign, in 2016, republished The Art of the Deal as part of his presidential campaign. And some of these included fancy-dancy book plates which were personally signed by His Disgrace. And this was one of them.

So, I bought it. Now, remember what I said about McKay’s irrational pricing policies? Maybe I reached that conclusion too quickly. As I looked through the store, I thought that I could sense that books by Republicans were all very inexpensive. Was this because McKay’s didn’t think they were worth any more, or because McKay’s really wanted to sell these books quickly so that people would read them? I don’t now.

But before I tell you the price, let me tell you that there are three signed copies of this edition of this book, looking identical to mine, for sale on the Abebooks website. They are listed at $725.00, $860.00, and (for some reason) $1500.00. What did I buy this book for at McKay’s? 50 cents.  Talk about the art of a deal.

That’s it for today. It’s already after 8 p.m. in the East – my latest posting ever. Below are two photographs. The first shows the $0.50 price for the book, and the second – perhaps – the license plate of the individual who put that price on it.