A Truly Great Bookstore Clerk

Yesterday was my father's birthday, so I went into the city and met him and my mother for dinner at Alfred's Steakhouse.

I wanted to get him something, but had no idea what he would like, so I went to Stacey's Books on Market. Hunted around for a while. Called my mother on my little cell phone, and asked if she had any ideas.

After a few ideas were batted around, she told me that she thought there was a newish book out about the Clinton administration, 'but not that awful one bashing Hillary'.

I agreed that this sounded good, and hung up. We did not know the title, the author, or the publisher of the book, but I found a woman in an apron shelving books, and I said:

"Ma'am, I'm trying to find a book for my father. All I know is that it's a fairly new book about the Clinton administration, but not the Hillary-bashing one."

She walked me straight to the politics section, pulled a book off the shelf and handed it to me.

For the record, the book is The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House, by John F. Harris. The awful Hillary-bashing one sounds funnier, though.