Okay, I confess: I went to the mall yesterday, because I had to buy to some software from the Apple store!  I could've gone to CompUSA, but that would've made for a longer drive.  But I absolutely share the hatred of malls, probably because I find the entire teenage status-seeking scene that is always inherent to malls to be so nauseating.  (Is it a sign that I'm getting old when I start feeling the urge to tell younger girls to put some fucking clothes on, and younger guys to pull their God-damned pants up, when I go there?)  It's not the chains that bother me so much, so long as the chains I like stick around.  Keep Apple and American Eagle in the mall, or somewhere nearby, and I won't have a problem.

I never shopped at them, since I was never there for a long period, but I always enjoyed walking through the sort of mini-markets in London's immigrant neighborhoods.  Whenever I'd walk through them, I'd think to myself, "Wow, this looks a lot like those old photos of New York from the late-19th/early-20th centuries."  It's an experience, and, with the New York image in mind, I can't help but think of what it will look like fifty years from now.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.