Want to know my choice for most overrated magazine filler idea? “Overrated & Underrated” is simply one more in an exasperating string of magazine “articles” in which large numbers of purported experts are invited to identify the best this, worst that, or most something else. The content tells readers more about the givers of the opinions than about the subject matter—precisely because the anthology format is too Attention Deficit Disorder-friendly to offer more than assertions mixed with some smattering of background information.

This is true even of two opinion givers with whom I happen to agree, Stephen King on rock bands and Andrew Sarris on movie Westerns.

Most underrated magazine filler idea, at least in the 1990s: substance.