By Jim Mullen

NEA Columnist

I was reading New York magazine last week. I used to live there (in New York, not the magazine). I like to keep up with what’s going on. It’s full of the usual stuff of magazines - what to wear, who’s wearing what to wear, where they’re buying what to wear, where they’re wearing what to wear, what they’re talking about when they’re wearing what to wear, what gadgets they’re buying when they’re wearing what to wear, what restaurants they go to when they’re wearing what to wear, and what they are eating at the restaurant when they are wearing what to wear.

It is a magazine that has no equal when it comes to explaining the huge differences between a tiny, black leather $700 purse and the identical (except to the trained shopper’s eye) $1,400 purse; between the $1,200 shoes and their offensive look-alike $300 cousins.