Dan mentioned the other day that what he really wants is a seven-floor department store. I just want a department store with a tidy ladies' room and space between the racks of clothes. In a book about diners, bowling alleys, and trailer parks (and suburbanization), historian Andrew Hurley asserts that when "the large department stores . . . opened branch outlets in the 1950s [in the suburbs, they] abandoned their formal downtown sales techniques in favor of a no-frills, self-service approach more convenient and less intimidating to affluent blue-collar customers." Well, sure, Hecht's is less intimidating than Bergdof Goodman, but there's a difference between self-service and no service.

And now to finalize my wardrobe for a quick trip to Baltimore. . . .