Somebody hire Brian McGrory a researcher

Before I dissect McGrory's column today, let me first compliment him on a truly wonderful first paragraph:

I live with what is probably a completely rational fear that one day I'm going to wander into this newsroom and someone else is going to be sitting at my desk, talking on my phone, and no one in management will have bothered to tell me about the change.

Ahem. In any case, his column today is actually just what you'd expect from a metro columnist at a big-city paper: An expose of a heartless out-of-state mall owner crushing a locally owned tenant despite years of loyalty. Get 'em, tiger!

But something about the column sounded familiar. Simon Property? Burlington Mall? Locally owned tenant? No notice?

Oh, yeah. Back in October, the Globe's Steve Bailey described how Simon Property was planning to replace Pizzeria Regina at the Burlington Mall without telling the locally owned chain, which had been at the mall forever.

Yes, that column was six months ago, which is like 25 years to McGrory, but, really, wouldn't it have been a much better column if he'd mentioned this isn't the first time Simon has pulled this sort of stunt? How long would it have taken to search the Globe's morgue? Why, I bet he could have done it right from his desk - surely the Globe has their stories available in the newsroom electronically now.