Etc.

Sorry, I know this is a bit late

Consider, for a moment, what types of books tend to be kept by borrowers way past the date they're due back at the library. Probably not best selling biographies or in-demand Tom Clancy novels, right? OK, how about one with the title, "New Word Analysis: Or, School Etymology of English Derivative Words" by William Swinton? Bingo – at least where the Holland Hall School in Tulsa, Okla., is concerned. According to news accounts, that volume arrived in the mail one day last month, along with a note of apology and a check for the estimated fine. Holland Hall is an Episcopal academy for girls, and the book apparently had been checked out by alumna Martha McCabe Jarrett when she was a sophomore in ... 1947. Apparently, that is, because the Venice, Fla., resident can't seem to remember borrowing it. Nonetheless, it turned up as she was cleaning a summer home she owns in Ohio. "It was," she told reporters, "with things I enjoy and my kids don't." Even if the book was "something the library was getting rid of, or my Latin teacher had given it to me," she decided to return it because "I value the education I got at that school." Oh, the amount of the check: $250. Holland Hall doesn't have an overdue-books fund per se, so the money may be used for scholarships. It's not known whether anyone else has borrowed "New Word Analysis: Or, School Etymology of English Derivative Words" since Jarrett sent it back. After all, it was written in 1879 and may not exactly be relevant to the way language is used today.