Manassas, Virginia

Dateline: Cracker Barrel. For the fourth time in the last month or so, we hit up the local CB to drop off a book on CD. This time, David Baldacci’s, “The Camel Club.”

(Apologies in advance to those of you that enjoy Cracker Barrel. I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me.)

The last four trips were my only exposure to the manufactured nostalgia and shameless, folksy pander on display in the exact same way from store to store. A bizarre place, made more so by the constant crowds of old people on both sides of the counter.

Among the several pressing, seemingly unanswerable questions:

• Do they really need to hawk Halloween stuff right now, in the middle of the summer?

• Has anyone actually bought the marshmallow peanuts (or any of the old timey candy, for that matter) – ever?

• Is the local CB the kind of place you’d go to pick out a new UGA tee shirt or a Virginia Tech coozy? Is that the stuff people get on an impulse?

• Who believes that the chalkboard sign that appears in front of every CB (“Picked farm fresh from our garden”) actually means what it says?

I could go on and on. I just don’t get it. What I do get, though, loud and clear, is the genius of their book on CD rental service. The ability to hear the latest Baldacci, White, etc. for next to nothing has certainly made our lives better over the last several weeks. Thanks, CB.