Eating My Hat

I'd just finished writing a blistering indictment of the fact that no major travel guide to Mexico City exists. It included sentences like these: "This fact is utterly scandalous! We're talking about a major world megalopolis, rich with culture and sights to see, that combines the verve you expect of Mexico with the bustle of New York and the panache of Europe. As far as I can tell the only reason not to publish a proper guidebook to the city is plain old American prejudice--our persistent perception that things "south of the border" are lesser, together with some fifteen-year old air-quality and crime statistics.You can choose between several 200+ page books about Kansas City, for lord's sake!" I was feeling flush with my own righteous indignation. And then I went on amazon to pull links to the two excellent but tiny books we did use on our trip--Eye Witness Travel Top 10: Mexico City and Wallpaper City Guide: Mexico City--and there, staring me in the face, was this: Moon Handbooks: Mexico City. Doh. How did I miss it back when I was prepping for our trip!? Well, I can tell you actually: it's because it was not stocked in any of the half dozen San Francisco bookstores I looked in. So there's that. But still. I have now gone back and revised this post into the form you are currently reading, so that it has become a solipsistic tale of little more than my own foolishness. But what can you do? Some days you eat the publishing industry, and some days it eats you.