Overheard in Seattle

Where: the used book section of Elliott Bay Book Co.

Excited customer: I have an incredibly valuable book. A book written by Hitler!

Female clerk: Are you asking if we'll buy it from you?

Excited customer: Yeah! I couldn't put it down. I can't believe it's actually by him, that he wrote a book! Here it is, it's in excellent condition.

Female clerk: We can't buy this.

Excited customer: Why not?

Female clerk: The binding is cracked.

Excited customer: What!? The binding is cracked? I just opened the book.

Female clerk: See, right here, it's cracked.

Excited customer: Wow. So can you tell me if this book is valuable? It's by Hitler!

Female clerk: It's not worth much. The binding is cracked.

Excited customer: But if the binding wasn't cracked?

Male clerk: It's still not worth much. It's pretty, um, popular, actually.

Excited customer: Popular?

Male clerk: Yeah, it's never been out of print.

Excited customer: Mein kam-puff?

Male clerk: Mein Kampf. Right.

Excited customer: Wow. You know, I read this -- I think he was a crazy dude. He wanted to kill everybody!

Male clerk: Yeah.

Excited customer: You just want him to explain it, you know? Maybe in a thousand years he'll be born again and let us know what he was thinking. Oh, well. God bless! [Exits]

(Yeah, we're ripping off Overheard in New York, but we're hardly the first Ist to do so.)