The Lexicographer's Rules

"Wal-Mart operates on a saturation strategy. They place stores so close together that they become their own competition. Once everyone else is wiped out, they're free to thin out their own stores. Wal-Mart currently has over 390 empty stores on the market today. This is a company that changes stores as casually as you or I change shoes."

—Alternet. The documentary Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town, by Micha Peled will air on PBS beginning June 7.'

"We came here in '49. We came on a boat to Boston, and from Boston by train to New York, and I lost all my jewelry that I had in my pocketbook in the taxicab here. They said to put all your jewelry on, because you will pay duties. It was not true, nobody looked. It was so hotÑit was August, and terribly hot. In the train I went to freshen myself up a little bit, and put everything in my pocketbook. We stayed in the 23rd St. YMCA for a nightÑthat was our first night here. We came from the pier by taxicab, and my son fell asleep in the taxi. And I put my pocketbook on the seat. Dr. Karpovich came to meet us, and closed the door, and the taxicab left with my pocketbook with all my papers and everything that I had. That was the first night in New York. I was crying all night."

—New York Press. A short oral history of the East Village Ukranian community.

"Just like many Americans in the 1950s willfully averted their eyes from the realities of segregation, now we are reluctant to face the social consequences of 2 million men and women behind bars. Sure, we revel in the dramatic reduction in the crime rate. But with most prisons in rural areas, we have the luxury of pretending that these inmates exist in some alternative universe that has no connection with our daily lives."

—USA Today. What are the consequences of 600,000 peopleÑgenerally undereducated, poor and maleÑleaving federal and state prisons for the street each year?'

"A young man died recently in my front yard. All I know is that he was 22, his automobile was scattered all over my yard and his blood pooled at the bottom of my maple tree."

—Kansas City Star. Also in the letters to the editor: how Memento was a bad movie-going experience, a police shooting, fossil fuels and the National Rifle Association convention.'

"Mr. Grimes had done more than reduce a chef to tears. In 1,052 words, he had thrown a $3.5 million business venture employing 75 people into jeopardy."

—New York Observer. William Grimes, food critic for the New York Times, condemns with a pen. "It really didn't matter who had written the review. A 'Satisfactory' rating from the Times is perceived as the kiss of death in a town that demands excellence when it dines out. Greek coffee shops may thrive on critics' 'Satisfactory' experiences, but MarikaÑwith its 90-foot illuminated Pyrex bar and bluestone columnsÑpromised something much more ambitious."'