Wal-Mart has returned about 3,500 copies of George Carlin’s new book, saying it hadn’t ordered it. The publisher begs to disagree (since he will take a loss on the books). “Publishing sources say it’s unlikely that Wal-Mart — known to skip books that might be deemed politically or religiously provocative — would have ordered the book in the first place. But it’s also unlikely that the books would have been shipped from the warehouse by accident. The most likely scenario is that someone ordered them, and then thought better of it. Retailers can return any unsold books to the publisher or distributor, at any time, at the publisher’s expense.”