<Spend enough time in large public venues and you'll probably encounter flash-mob entertainment.
The seemingly impromptu song-and-dance performances at airports, train stations, parks and shopping malls are actually the result of rigorous planning and practice by dedicated amateurs.
Performers numbering in the scores and hundreds don't draw attention to themselves until melding into the singing and choreography.
Audiences are first curious, then awestruck as their mundane surroundings are turned into stages for live musicals.
Those routines bear no resemblance to another kind of flash mob common in urban areas: theft of merchandise by hordes of teenagers who shoplift en masse, then quickly disappear with the loot.
Sort of a modern version of the classic gypsy ploy used around the world for centuries. (jimvoigt@harryhiggens.com)
