Anecdotal Evidence: `Try to Burn a Piece of Granite'

Anecdotal Evidence: `Try to Burn a Piece of Granite'
Excerpt:
My father-in-law passed along a tip which like so many kernels of information gleaned from the digital pastures of plenty he could no longer trace to its source. During the recent tantrums in London and elsewhere in England, it seems, vandals and thieves had spared the bookshops. On blocks where most businesses were sacked, W.H. Smith and others remained largely intact. A quick online search confirmed the happy rumor.

My first thought was that the rioters hadn’t recognized the paper artifacts arranged on tables and shelves, and correctly deduced they were not edible, potable or sellable, and moved elsewhere to enjoy “the sheer pleasure of assisting entropy in its great work of returning the world to chaos.”...