To my suprise, Dad offers the following commentary on the mall piece below:

About the malls, you fellows are going the wrong route. Malls are the replacement of the “agora,” the “plaza mayor,” or the “forum Romanum.” With suburban changes, the places of trade or exchange of ideas have shifted. Teenagers, or other more rational beings, may hang-out in the mall in the same fashion that they did it in Salamanca, but with the Gap replacing Mr. Taylor’s shop. If you are too uppity about malls, it is probably because you have an unrealistic romantic idea of the communication geography of the past. Relax and enjoy.

Well, call me a curmudgeon, but it’s hard to see the Gap as an improvement over the Place des Vosges. Still, the point is well taken.