Best backhanded compliment I have received recently

Saturday my condo association had its annual yard sale. After 5+ years of living there, I finally decided to join in on the fun. Holy shit, why haven't I done this before? You get kinda crazy once you make your first sale: you start to mentally rummage through everything in your house and figure out what else you really don't need. A level-headed friend was needed to keep me from hauling out all of my earthly possessions. I did, however, unload my vacuum cleaner that doesn't work (except for the nozzle portion) and a microwave that must date back to the Stone Age and probably has rendered me sterile.

I also put out a bunch of my old paperbacks and CDs. I figured that DC being such a literate town that the books would go like hotcakes and the CDs would be hard to move. As it turned out, it was the opposite. My CDs went almost immediately and I had to drop the price on my books to get rid of them.

By early afternoon, I just wanted the damn things out of my sight. Once I've pulled out books and other personal items to be sold, I find I've emotionally distanced myself from them and I no longer want them.

So I was happy when two 20-something guys walked up and started rooting around the books. Eventually each of them was clutching a small pile of books to take with him. One of them, while his friend was digging out some spare change for his purchases, told me in all seriousness, "You have really good books. For a yard sale, that is."

Er, thanks? My friend GI Jane told them, "That's because all her Jackie Collins books went first thing this morning," and I added, "Yeah, you'd be surprised by how popular Sydney Sheldon still is." Their response? Didn't even crack a smile. I guess they were worried that their new books had been rubbing elbows with - gasp! - airport reads.