2.17.2004

Carlo on Paco -- OK, this is possibly the most obscure observation I've ever posted, but here goes. I just read this book review in the Globe, for Paco Underhill's (the Latino hobbit?) new book "The Call of the Mall." Being from Jersey, this of course caught my eye -- but it turned out to be one of the shoddiest book reviews I've ever read. It reads like it was generated by a software script that sticks random adjectives ("zestfully"?) into fifth-grade level expository writing, and then edited by a chimp. Writer Carlo Wolff is a "Globe correspondent" freelancer from Cleveland...let me count the things wrong with that sentence. And speaking of which, the book itself gets an honorary dope-slap for its stilted official title: "The Call of the Mall: The Author of 'Why We Buy' on the Geography of Shopping." This is akin to subtitling "Emma" with "From the Makers of 'Sense and Sensibility.'" Sheesh.

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