LISTS: A journalist's favorite standby revealed

One tried-and-true trick that journalists use to start off a story (other than alliteration) is to list a widely varying group of intriguing items at an event. Say you're doing a story on a neighborhood garage sale: you'd list a bunch of stuff that you saw to highlight the staggering spectrum of things for sale, everything from, say, cuddly baby clothes to a book on "Medicare for Dummies," or 1970s record albums to an iPad. Bonus points if photographs of some of them actually show up in the paper.
Or you go to a potluck and the buffet table is groaning with everything from hummus made with organic chickpeas to gooey creampuffs with Grand Marnier sauce (I go to good potlucks).
You get the idea. It's easy and fun.
The reason I mention this is that apparently catalog copywriters are doing the same thing. I received a book catalog in the mail the other day and on the back page alone were books on metalworking, mushroom hunting, firearms, an autobiography of Davy Crockett, an off-color DVD, "What To Do When A Loved One Dies," and my favorite, "Great Book of Tattoo Designs" (the revised edition, no less).