Op-Ed

From the typographical clamor raised in the New York Daily News, you'd have thought New York Press columnist George Szamuely had been caught committing satanic abuse in a day-care center. But it tured out that Szamuely's great crime was to have taken too many books -- 580 is a number that shows up in the press reports -- out of the New York University library, and been remiss in giving them back. The News and other newspapers have exultantly noted that Szamuely faces an overdue fine of $31,000, plus charges of grand larceny and possible jail time. John Beckman, described as a university spokesman, strutted through the news stories like some frontier sheriff twirling his six-gun: "Don't mess with NYU librarians."

A little realism, please, starting with the nonsense about a $31,00 fine. This vast sum is merely what the library reckons to be the cost of replacement of all the books, irrelevant to this case, since all the books are present and accounted for.