Julian Montague

The study of taxonomy is full of surprises. During a summer’s field work in the Adirondacks, my adviser and I devoted our lunches to a phylogenetic classification of McDonaldland Cookies. (Note: these are the 1970s cookies – current cookies seem to belong to a different kingdom):

Cursory observation will note that most of the cookie characters display segmentation (in this case, multiple buns), a feature observed otherwise in the annelids, arthropods, and chordates. There is massive cephalization, an observed trend in arthropods (compare, for example, the imputed primitive crustacean Hutchinsoniella with, say, crabs). But where to go from there? Is Phil A. O’Fish an ancestral marine form or a derived return to the water, like cetaceans? Is the hat, seen on Mayor McCheese, Big Mac the Cop, and the Hamburglar, a shared common characteristic or an example of convergent evolution? Is the Hamburger Bush analogous to social insects or a colonial organism? And so forth. (Paid for by an NSF grant. Well, lunch was.).

That brings us to the current book, The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification by Julian Montague. Montague takes the interesting approach of organizing his work with the field observer in mind, rather than the laboratory taxonomist. Carts are considered in relation to their source – i.e., a store offering carts as a convenience to customers, with the major subdivisions of Class A, “false” strays – that is, carts that are still on then source premises or within recollection distance - and Class B, “true” strays, that are beyond source recovery. Each major division has “types” that illustrate a stray shopping cart habitat; for example, Class A2 covers “Plaza Drift” carts, that are remote from their Source but still in the same shopping plaza and therefore at least theoretically recoverable by the Source.

Montague describes some carts that have gone sequentially through several types, and is laudably careful to use the term “transition” rather than “evolution” for these changes to avoid implying a phylogenetic rather than chronological relationship. As an example, Montague invites us to consider the sequence B1 (open true, a stray that is no longer recoverable by the Source) to B4 (personal property, a stray that has been collected by an individual for personal use) to B14 (archaic, a stray from a source no longer in business) to B9 (snow immobilization, a stray that can no longer be moved due to snow) to B10 (plow crush, a stray that has been damaged beyond repair by a snow plow – we are cautioned here that a stray simply buried in snow without significant damage should remain in B9) to B19 (refuse).

This book is extensively illustrated with photographs showing the cart types, and a large section of field photographs demonstrating the classification process. Appendices include a complex site, the Niagara River Gorge, where vandalized (B12 or B13) carts show a ecological succession with gorge depth similar to classic plant and animal altitude zonation, and suggestions for further work with plastic bags, automobile tires, and traffic cones.

A truly excellent scholarly study, certainly the definitive work in the field. My only criticism is that the small format mitigates against use as a “coffee-table” book, where visitors could leaf through it and thereby never trouble you with a visit again. On the other hand, its size does make it convenient to bring to job interviews to be produced when the interviewer asks you to discuss your hobbies.… (más)

This is one of those books shelved in the humor section only because most bookstores don't have a WTF section. It is, in short, exactly what the title suggests: a study of shopping carts that have escaped their shops and parking lots. The subject matter is taken so seriously and each cart categorized so meticulously that it's difficult to accept that this is all truly meant as a joke. I read the entire thing, though, and actually quite enjoyed the photography. There's a certain beauty to the urban decay represented here. My favorite category, of which there was far too little, was "complex vandalism" - and more specifically, the cart somehow launched atop a street sign. I don't know that I would necessarily recommend this book to anyone, but I suppose there is a certain sort of person whose book collection would be incomplete without it. Find them, and give them this book.… (más)

Until now, the major obstacle that has prevented people from thinking critically about stray shopping carts has been that we have not had any formalized language to differentiate one shopping cart from another.

This parody of field guides establishes a taxonomy based not on shopping-cart characteristics but on the characteristics of where they’re found and their condition and use. It defines two classes -- False Strays (carts that have been temporarily repurposed near their store or have strayed but will be rounded up and returned to the store) and True Strays (carts that won’t be returned to their store) -- and then 33 subtypes including variously damaged, vandalized, naturalized (e.g. into bodies of water), repurposed (i.e. stolen for personal or business use), and my favorite, “structurally modified” (see some photos on my reading thread).

There are hundreds of color-photo field examples, each exhaustively categorized, and then a section on the Niagara Falls River Gorge, “a complex vandalism super site.” An appendix describes related phenomena: stray plastic bags, car tires and traffic cones.

It’s an extremely well-developed parody, insightful even, and deeply humorous.… (más)