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On the way up to Washington, I read Freakonomics. As you might be hearing by now, it's all about everyday economic stuff -- mostly crime and cheating -- in the style of Blink. That is, the punch-line is usually something counter-intutive or sly.

The book it pretty damn fantastic. It's chock full of plenty of interesting stories -- about crack-gangs, bagel sellers, real-estate agents, crazy kid names -- and lots of interesting applications of "what cool ideas can we pull out of these mountains of data":

• Real-estate agents have little incentive to get $10,000 more for your house. After everyone takes their cut of the pay-off, it's just an extra $100-150. So, they'll sell your house for $300,000 instead to get the bird in the hand instead of waiting a few days to get $310,000. Not so for their own houses: they get wait for those two in the bush.
• Lowly crack-dealers make less than minimum wage. And, with a little spin on semantics, they have a higher chance of getting killed than prisoners on death row.

If I were you, I'd get myself and copy and read it: it'll provide plenty of fodder for bar-talk and give you a good list of names and advice for kids.