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29
SATURDAY
Like it or not—and there’s a lot not to like—we’re all affected by the worldview of Michael J. Weiss. The journalist has made his name popularizing consumer demographics. His new book, The Clustered World: How We Live, What We Buy, and What It All Means About Who We Are, explains how marketing companies have divided America into 62 ZIP Code-based classes with distinctive patterns of income, jobs, living arrangements, and product preferences. While I admit that grazing The Clustered World’s statistical hors d’oeuvres is fascinating, I find its ultra-compartmentalization rather disturbing. I mean, as soon as I move my abode, as I recently did, from Dupont Circle (“Bohemian Mix,” in Weiss’ cutesy terminology) to Woodley Park (“Urban Gold Coast”), I shift from “gay and lesbian bookshop” to “sushi, balsamic vinegar, and cilantro”? Hear Weiss make a better case for his life’s work than I can at 1 p.m. at the National Postal Museum, 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Free. (202) 357-2991. (Louis Jacobson)